Asian stocks climb as Wall Street tech rally boosts markets

Asian stocks rose on Friday, following Wall Street’s rally led by Tesla, IBM, and Meta after strong earnings reports. U.S. futures and oil prices also climbed.

Japan’s core inflation hit 2.5% in January, exceeding the central bank’s target, while unemployment dipped to 2.4% in December. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.1% to 39,540.37.

South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.4% to 2,501.83 as trading resumed post-holiday. AI startup DeepSeek’s advances rattled markets, leading to a 9.9% plunge in SK Hynix and a 2.4% drop in Samsung.

Australia’s ASX 200 gained 0.3%, while Bangkok’s SET rose 0.1%. Markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai remained closed for Lunar New Year.

Compare Top Forex brokers and start trading and investing with a trusted partner

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.5% to 6,071.17, the Dow added 0.4% to 44,882.13, and the Nasdaq gained 0.3% to 19,681.75. Meta climbed 1.6% after reporting strong profits and emphasizing AI investments. Nvidia recovered from early losses to close 1% higher, while Microsoft fell 6.2% on weaker-than-expected cloud growth.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield held steady at 4.52%, as economic growth remained solid but slightly below expectations.

Oil prices rose, with U.S. crude at $73.28 per barrel and Brent at $76.35. The dollar strengthened to 154.42 yen, while the euro slipped to $1.0385.