The Hang Seng Index extended its winning run to the second day on Tuesday, 6 October, climbing another 1% to settle at 24,280, as strong gains in technology stocks supported sentiment even as pressure on rate-sensitive property and financial stocks continued.
Key Asian stocks have received strong support from the tech-driven rally on Wall Street as traders’ attention has shifted towards strong earnings, resilient consumer spending and surging artificial intelligence-related investments.
On Monday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 added 0.7% to near its previous record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.1% to an all-time closing high.
A flurry of deals showed plenty of appetite for artificial intelligence investments. OpenAI was said to be in talks with multiple investment funds from the United Arab Emirates to help anchor a $30 billion round of financing, while China’s DeepSeek and Moonshot AI were also raising billions.
Although technology stocks swung back to gains, pressure on real estate and financial stocks has extended as rising US Treasury yields weighed on sentiment. Treasuries came under renewed pressure Monday, pushing longer-maturity yields to fresh multi-decade peaks, despite easing bets of a US rate hike later this month.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was last down 3 basis points at 5.281%, after reaching its highest level since April 2002 on Monday. The 30-year Treasury yield was down by just under 3 basis points to 5.637%, after also rising to levels not seen since May 2002.
An update last week on the US jobs market helped to alleviate worries about higher inflation. The US government said employers across the country added 29,000 more jobs to their payrolls than they cut last month. That was fewer than economists expected and a slowdown from August’s net hiring rate of 133,000.
Asian markets trade mixed as Nikkei crosses 70,000
Among other key Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% to 70,683.98. The benchmark has returned above the 70,000 mark this week for the first time since early July. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.9% to 6,941.39. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6% to 8,735.70.
Taiwan’s Taiex edged up 0.2%, while India’s Sensex added 1%. Markets in mainland China were closed because of a holiday.
Meanwhile, oil prices declined early Tuesday. Brent crude, the international standard, was down 0.8% to $99.48 per barrel, back below the $100 mark. The decline followed rising Persian Gulf exports, and a Saudi Arabian price cut that pointed to a loosening market.
US oil dropped below $90. President Donald Trump is preparing to ease limits restricting the use of a tax-exempt variety of diesel, his latest bid to pare costs for the essential fuel.
(With inputs from agencies)
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