Asian Shares Rise As Oil Prices And Bond Yields Dip

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks ended mostly higher in thin trade on Friday, with markets in South Korea and Taiwan closed for a holiday.

While technology stocks came under selling pressure amid renewed concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) boom and elevated borrowing costs, a retreat in oil prices and U.S. Treasury yields helped spur buying at lower levels.

Gold jumped nearly 1.5 percent toward $4,200 an ounce and the U.S. dollar took a breather as U.S. Treasury yields finally halted their relentless upward trajectory. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 5.22 percent after a 30-year debt auction met with solid demand.

Brent crude prices dropped 1 percent to trade above $103 a barrel, paring gains from the previous session as U.S. President Donald Trump ruled out attacking Iran before the U.S. midterm elections on November 3, adding that record volumes of crude were currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump also claimed that the two countries were holding "productive" discussions to end the six-month-old war. However, subsequent reports indicated that the U.S. had already prepared plans for three days of targeted strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure, drone and missile stockpiles.

China's Shanghai Composite index finished marginally higher at 3,813.79 after slipping at open amid geopolitical tensions and renewed fears of potential U.S. trade curbs on next-generation optical transceivers for data centers.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.79 percent to close at 24,211.35, snapping a two-session losing streak on improving forward earnings expectations for tech stocks. Japanese markets recovered from an early slide to end on a flat note. The Nikkei average finished marginally lower at 69,030.92 while the broader Topix index settled 0.33 percent higher at 4,104.81.

Heavyweight SoftBank Group tumbled 3.9 percent and Renesas Electronics lost 4 percent after OpenAI's underwhelming revenue report and news that Apple has reduced component orders for iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max by 15 percent due to soft demand.

The yen weakened slightly against the dollar after data showed Japan's household spending fell for a ninth month despite improving wages.

Australian markets ended notably higher, led by banks and gold stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 surged 0.64 percent to 8,716.60 while the broader All Ordinaries index closed 0.62 percent higher at 8,877.70.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index rose 0.42 percent to 13,749.35, reversing morning losses and extending gains from the previous session.

U.S. stocks closed lower overnight, with technology stocks pacing the declines after the Financial Times reported that OpenAI's annualized revenue is about $20 billion less than the company previously signaled.

Rising oil prices and elevated bond yields on hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller indicating potential for further interest rate increases also weighed on markets.

Separately, St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem said more monetary policy tightening will be required to bring inflation back to target in a timely manner.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.3 percent and the S&P 500 dropped half a percent while the narrower Dow edged up 0.1 percent.