Stock markets surge on tech rally, US rate hopes

AFP | London

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Equities jumped yesterday thanks to gains in tech stocks and as weak US jobs data fanned optimism for more interest rate cuts, outweighing concerns over a partial government shutdown.

Wall Street opened mostly higher with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite pushing higher from record closes.

In Europe, both Paris and Frankfurt stock markets jumped more than one percent, with automakers also rallying. London dipped.

Tech stocks surged as South Korea’s biggest chip firms agreed to supply chips and other equipment to OpenAI’s Stargate project for AI infrastructure.

South Korea’s Kospi index climbed 2.7 percent to a record high, thanks to Samsung and SK hynix shares soaring to one-year highs after the firms signed a preliminary deal with the ChatGPT developer OpenAI.

Tokyo rose, as did Hong Kong’s tech-heavy Hang Seng index. Shanghai was closed for a week-long holiday.

Taipei’s stock index jumped 1.5 percent as chip titan and market heavyweight TSMC piled on three percent.

Europe’s tech companies also rose, with ASML up five percent, and STMicroelectronics and Schneider Electric adding more than two percent. Shares in leading AI chipmaker Nvidia rose 1.7 percent at the start of trading in New York.

Tech companies have been at the forefront of a surge across markets this year as investors pile into all things linked to artificial intelligence, with hundreds of billions being pumped into the sector