Asian Shares Mostly Higher On US-Iran Deal Hopes

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks rose broadly on Thursday as U.S.-Iran peace talks entered a critical phase and Nvidia announced record quarterly profit and revenue amid explosive demand for its advanced AI chips.

Gold dipped toward $4,500 an ounce in Asian trading, weighed down by a firm dollar and higher Treasury yields.

Brent crude futures rose over 1 percent to trade above $106 a barrel, after having fallen more than 5 percent in the previous session on optimism about an end to the U.S.-Iran war and expectations for a near-term restart of energy flows through the critical Strait of Hormuz.

China's Shanghai Composite index ended 2.04 percent lower at 4,077.28, reversing early gains. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.03 percent to 25,386.52.

Singamas Container Holdings slumped 13.6 percent and CIMC lost about 10 percent after U.S. prosecutors accused Chinese executives and companies of fixing shipping container prices during the COVid-19 pandemic.

Japanese markets posted strong gains amid renewed enthusiasm for technology stocks. Economic reports proved to be a mixed bag, with Japan clocking a bigger-than-expected trade surplus in April, aided by an outsized increase in exports, while core machinery orders posted the steepest decline since last November in March.

The Nikkei average jumped 3.14 percent to 61,684.14 while the broader Topix index settled 1.64 percent higher at 3,853.81.

SoftBank Group shares jumped nearly 20 percent after SB Energy, a digital infrastructure firm that it backs, confidentially filed for an initially public offering in the United States.

Seoul stocks spiked, with the Kospi index climbing 8.42 percent to 7,815.59, led by technology stocks after strong earnings from Nvidia.

Samsung Electronics shares soared 8.5 percent after the management and its union leaders reached a tentative bonus pay agreement at the 11th hour, helping avert a strike at the world's largest memory-chip maker.

Producer prices in South Korea climbed 2.5 percent month-on-month in April, the Bank of Korea said today - up from 1.7 percent in March due to higher petroleum and raw materials prices stemming from the ongoing war in Iran.

Australian markets ended on a buoyant note as weak jobs data prompted traders to trim bets on a near-term rate hike. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 surged 1.47 percent to 8,621.70, logging its highest closing level in a week. The broader All Ordinaries index closed up 1.42 percent at 8,840.80, led by mining stocks.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index gained 0.92 percent to close at 12,878.07, after ending at a more than seven-week low in the previous session.

Overnight, U.S. stocks rose sharply as oil prices and Treasury yields tumbled on President Trump's comments that the U.S. conflict with Iran is in the "final stages", raising hopes that tensions could ease and reduce pressure on global energy markets.

"We'll either have a deal or we're going to do some things that are a little bit nasty," Trump said while leaving open the possibility of renewing military attacks against Iran.

Meanwhile, minutes from the Fed's latest policy meeting revealed a noticeably hawkish tone, with most officials anticipating that interest rate hikes would be necessary if inflation persists above their 2 percent target.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.5 percent, the S&P 500 advanced 1.1 percent and the Dow gained 1.3 percent.