Australian markets climbed Thursday, breaking ranks with Wall Street that fell overnight as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged. Several Asia-Pacific markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
The S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.22%, extending its gains from the previous session, ahead of trade data release.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open higher, with the futures contract in Chicago at 39,365 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 39,270, against the index’s previous close of 39,414.78.
Overnight in the U.S., benchmark indexes fell after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged in its first policy decision of the year on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 slid 0.47% to close at 6,039.31, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.51% to end at 19,632.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 136.83 points, or 0.31%, to 44,713.52.
Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia lost 4.1%, after a strong showing in the previous session.
The chipmaker’s shares hit session lows after reports from Bloomberg News that Trump administration officials had discussed curbing its chip sales to China following the challenge posed by the country’s DeepSeek AI model.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailan Han and Brian Evans contributed to this report.
By CNBC