Asian stock markets climb after earlier tech rout
Markets rebound after tech rout triggered by Democrats' sweeping victory in US midterm elections.
Key points
- Asian indexes rose on Monday after a tech sell-off tied to the US midterm results.
- Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 3.45 percent and Taipei's Taiex 5.72 percent as of 04:00 GMT.
- Nvidia's board will hold an independent inquiry into CEO Jensen Huang's relationship.
Asian stock markets rebounded on Monday after last week's tech sell-off, which followed the Democratic Party's sweeping victory in the US midterm elections. Key indexes in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong posted substantial gains, tracking a Wall Street rebound on Friday.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was up 3.45 percent as of 04:00 GMT. Taipei's Taiex rose 5.72 percent and Seoul's Kospi gained 1.68 percent. Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were up 0.60 percent and 0.59 percent.
Nvidia announces inquiry
The earlier dip followed Nvidia's announcement that it would investigate CEO Jensen Huang over a romantic relationship with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy. The board said it had confidence in Huang and no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, but an independent inquiry would examine "all available information". The board said Huang supported the inquiry and pledged full cooperation.
The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders
— Nvidia
Scale of the sell-off
The rebound follows a $2.5 trillion sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday, driven by concerns that Democratic-controlled legislatures could slow the rollout of data centres used to power AI. The rout spread to Asia on Friday, when the Nikkei 225 and Kospi fell about 6 percent and 9 percent respectively, and the Hang Seng Index dropped more than 1 percent.
