Asian shares rose on Thursday supported by gains in technology giants on Wall Street, while US-Iran tensions gave support to oil prices and gold got support from safe-haven investment flows.
Among currencies, the dollar strengthened after minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting showed policymakers were in no rush to cut rates.
Trading in Asia was subdued as markets in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays, but MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.5% and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.85%, led by technology shares.
South Korea's Kospi jumped nearly 3% to a record high.
Shares of the tech giant rose on Wall Street on Tuesday after news from Nvidia said it had signed a multiyear deal to sell millions of its current and future artificial intelligence chips to Meta Platform.
“We needed some good news. I think there's been a general sense of malaise in the tech sector,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore, referring to the massive selloff earlier this month.
“Nvidia has been front and center of the rally we saw at the end of 2025, and potentially it's coming to the rescue a bit now… There's some badly needed good news out there that could potentially set up tech stocks to outperform heading into Nvidia's earnings next week.”
nasdaq futures NQc1 S&P 500 futures added 0.05% ESC1 Futures increased by 0.03% STXEc1 Meanwhile, were down 0.15%.
Geopolitics also dominated the markets.
Oil prices edged up after a surge in the previous session as investors feared potential supply disruptions on concerns of a conflict between the US and Iran.
Brent crude futures were slightly down at $70.31 a barrel after jumping 4.35% in the previous session, while US crude was at $65.10, extending Wednesday's 4.6% gain.
“There has been a very intense build-up of military assets in the last 24 hours … but I think this is all part of this diplomatic cat and mouse, and I don't think we're going to see any imminent attack. I think it's just designed to put more pressure on Iran to come back from these negotiations with more reasonable objectives,” Sycamore said.
Nevertheless, bids on gold continued and it remained stable at $4,963.99 an ounce.
fed outlook
The dollar edged higher on Thursday after better-than-expected US economic data and minutes from the Fed's January policy meeting showed many policymakers were prepared to raise rates if inflation remains high.
Against the dollar, sterling fell near a one-month low of $1.3488, while the yen neared the 155 per dollar level and stood at 154.80.
“From our perspective, the (Fed) minutes support our view that a rate cut is unlikely in the near future,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management.
“While some market participants are seeing inflation in the rearview mirror, the Fed is still signaling the safety warning that 'things in the mirror are closer than they appear'. Policymakers specifically noted that deflation may be on a slow path.”
Elsewhere, the euro struggled below $1.18 and last bought $1.1791, under pressure from news that European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde plans to leave her job early.
The New Zealand dollar was up 0.11% at $0.5972, having fallen 1.4% in the previous session after the country's central bank upped market expectations at its policy meeting.