South Korea's Kospi Jumps 4% as AI Stocks Rebound

South Korea's Kospi index jumped more than 4 percent on Tuesday, trading 3.6 percent higher at 5,667.99 by midday. The surge followed a rally on Wall Street driven by artificial intelligence stocks and occurred ahead of major corporate earnings reports and central bank decisions. Computer chipmaker SK Hynix surged 7 percent, while Samsung Electronics gained 4.8 percent.

The positive momentum extended to other Asian markets, though with varying intensity. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 2.2 percent to close at 63,542.77. Testing equipment maker Advantest jumped more than 10 percent, and SoftBank Group, an investor in OpenAI, climbed 7 percent. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.3 percent to 8,838.10. Conversely, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gave up early gains and slipped 0.2 percent to 23,174.44, while the Shanghai Composite edged 0.1 percent lower to 3,692.58. Traders in these markets were also monitoring a closed-door high-level meeting of China's ruling Communist Party.

The recent market activity follows a volatile week for U.S. equities. On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent, recovering most of its losses from the prior week and pulling within 1.8 percent of its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3 percent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.8 percent. Nvidia, a key driver of the recent sentiment, rose 2.4 percent on Monday. This gain helped the company recover some value after three straight losing weeks, its longest such streak since June.

Corporate news regarding artificial intelligence spending dominated the trading session. Meta Platforms outlined plans to raise $35 billion by selling stock to fund AI investments. The company noted that Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Broadcom indicated they may buy a total of $5 billion of the new stock. Meanwhile, Anthropic provided details on its financial losses as it prepares to sell its stock on the public market for the first time. SpaceX announced a roughly $40 billion deal with an entity managed by Apollo Global Management to lease AI computing power.

Investors will look to upcoming earnings reports for further clarity on AI spending. Alphabet and Microsoft will report their latest quarterly results on Wednesday, with Amazon following on Thursday. Approximately one-third of stocks in the S&P 500 are scheduled to report results this week. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.98 percent from 5.00 percent late Friday, while the two-year yield rose to 4.71 percent. The Federal Reserve is expected to wrap up its meeting Wednesday without changing the federal funds rate.

Global markets also reacted to political news in Brazil. Brazilian stocks fell sharply after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection, a result that surprised investors concerned about potential increases in government spending. The Bovespa stock index dropped roughly 14 percent. In commodities, Brent crude oil fell 0.8 percent to $109.82 a barrel, and U.S. benchmark crude dropped 0.8 percent to $100.93 per barrel. The dollar rose to 157.65 Japanese yen, while the euro slipped to $1.1173.