Tech balance sheets took the wheel on Wednesday. Asian bourses pushed higher in morning trade as an earnings beat and raised annual guidance from Nvidia-backed CoreWeave blunted the fallout from hotter-than-projected US inflation. The broader Asian equity gauge gained 0.2%. Investors chose compute demand over interest rate shocks, clawing back ground despite a sour finish on Wall Street.
Nasdaq 100 futures rallied 0.4%, recovering from a 0.6% drop during cash hours in New York. Japan led regional momentum. Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 climbed 0.28%, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.64%. Taiwan's TAIEX tracked tech demand higher with a 0.58% bump. But the advance was far from uniform. South Korea’s Kospi swung through choppy bands before sliding 0.34%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng futures sank 1%.
Market gains arrived in Tokyo even as SoftBank Group shares suffered a brutal unraveling. SoftBank shares plummeted 8% as trading desks dumped the technology conglomerate following its quarterly disclosures. The firm swung to a massive fiscal second-quarter net loss of 1.12 trillion yen.
Capital was incinerated in US physical infrastructure. The conglomerate took heavy write-downs on non-refundable advance payments earmarked for American data-centre projects. In currency trade, the Japanese yen changed hands at 158.74 per US dollar, while the offshore Chinese yuan hovered at 6.6760.
CoreWeave provided the morning’s counterweight. The debt-funded cloud infrastructure provider saw its shares jump roughly 2% in late US trade after exceeding revenue projections and revising its full-year guidance upward. The performance eased investor panic that heavy debt loads would strangle high-performance computing operators. Sentiment caught a second wind as market participants tracked filings showing Anthropic targeting a fully diluted valuation of $1.4 trillion in its upcoming initial public offering.
| Asset / Index | Spot Price / Level | Session Move | Operational Context |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nikkei 225 | — | +0.28% | Japanese benchmark advanced despite tech conglomerate drag |
| Topix | — | +0.64% | Broader Tokyo board outpaced export-heavy peers |
| Taiwan TAIEX | — | +0.58% | Hardware supply chain tracked US cloud compute upgrades |
| South Korea Kospi |
Yet interest rate risks continue to build. In New York, the S&P 500 halted a two-day winning streak after fresh data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed persistent inflationary pressure across the world’s largest economy. Core consumer prices—which strip out volatile food and energy costs—climbed 0.3% month-on-month in October. The figure topped consensus forecasts for a third straight month. Headline CPI advanced 0.4% as prices for everyday essentials climbed across retail categories.
Bond desks responded with aggressive liquidations. Yields on policy-sensitive two-year US Treasury notes spiked 17 basis points to hit 4.73%—marking their steepest one-day jump in 19 months. Benchmark money markets moved quickly to price in a quarter-point rate hike from the Federal Reserve next month, while interest rate futures began factoring in three quarter-point increases by June.
Market Context: The sudden repricing of rate trajectories ends the relief rally ignited when Democrats swept Congress in the midterm elections. Higher borrowing costs threaten the capital-heavy deployments required for artificial intelligence clusters.
Central bankers reinforced the hawkish posture. Dallas Federal Reserve President Lorie Logan warned that faster rate increases may become necessary this winter to break sticky price pressures. Her remarks followed an assessment from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, who signaled that a half-point hike in December could be warranted if economic data refuses to cool.
Domestic sentiment in India remains tilted toward resilience. Early signals from the GIFT Nifty indicated a positive opening for Mumbai equities, positioning the Nifty 50 to mount a defense of its milestone 25,000 level. Technicians noted that the recent advance pushed the Relative Strength Index (RSI) of both the Nifty and the Nifty Bank into overbought territory. Still, primary charts show no decisive exhaustion patterns. Buyers continue to support dips.
Energy markets offered a rare patch of stability. Brent crude held steady at $92.02 a barrel in early Asian trading after a punishing two-day retreat. Crude had slid as much as 3.7% on Tuesday, momentarily slipping below $90 a barrel as technical selling accelerated alongside bets on diplomatic de-escalation in the Iran conflict. Floor traders will now watch how Mumbai desks handle the psychological 25,000 barrier against tightening global liquidity and elevated US bond yields.
| — |
| -0.34% |
| Whipsawed through morning trade before turning red |
| Hang Seng Futures | — | -1.00% | Regional laggard amid lingering macro drag |
| SoftBank Group | — | -8.00% | ¥1.12T quarterly loss on US data-centre advance write-downs |
| US 2-Year Treasury Yield | 4.73% | +17 bps | Sharpest single-day yield spike in 19 months |
| Brent Crude Oil | $92.02 / bbl | Steady | Settled below $92 Tuesday after sliding 3.7% |