The view of Nanjing Road East Pedestrian Mall the main shopping street in Shanghai.
Bruce Yuanyue Bi | The Image Bank | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets rose Thursday, following Wall Street’s biggest burst of buying since 2008 after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on higher tariffs on all nations bar China.
Japanese markets led gains in the region. The benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 8.19%, while the broader Topix index advanced 7.44%.
South Korea’s Kospi index surged 5.36%, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 5.32%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 4.69%.
Investors will be keeping a close watch on Chinese stocks, as the U.S. raised duties on imports from the Mainland to 125% after Beijing announced plans to retaliate with an 84% levy on American goods.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 1.60% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 3.92%.
U.S. futures rose after Trump’s pledge to pause tariffs on some trading partners for 90 days spurred a massive surge on Wall Street.
Overnight stateside, the broad-based S&P 500 skyrocketed 9.52% to settle at 5,456.90 for its biggest one-day gain since 2008. This also marks its third-biggest gain in post-WWII history.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2,962.86 points, or 7.87%, to close at 40,608.45 for its biggest percentage advance since March 2020. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 12.16% to end at 17,124.97, notching its largest one-day jump since January 2001 and second-best day ever.
— CNBC’s John Melloy and Hakyung Kim contributed to this report.
Taiwan shares surge over 9%, reversing course from three straight days of declines
Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex index surged 9.33% to 19,014.61 as of 9.50 a.m. local time, reversing course from three straight days of losses.
The rise was broad-based across industries, with gains led by the real estate, energy and industrials sectors.
The best performers include Lumax International Corp, Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp and Asia Plastic Recycling Holding, which all increased by 10%.
The iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF shows the index’s moves:
iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF
South Korea shares gain over 5% to highest level in a week
South Korea’s share average rose sharply on Thursday.
The Kospi index pared gains to 5.03% to 2,409.04 as of 10.22 a.m. local time, to its highest level in a week. The index has risen 0.26% since the start of the year.
Kospi index
The rise was broad-based across industries, and was led by the autos, technology, defense and manufacturing sectors.
Among the best performers in the index were tech giants SK Hynix which was up 11.27%, LG Display which gained 10.8% and Samsung Electronics which rose 4.91%.
Other key movers were Samsung Heavy which advanced 6.21%, Hyundai Motor which added 6.29% and Hyundai-Rotem which increased 9.36%.
Meanwhile, the small-cap Kosdaq was last seen up 4.73%.
— Amala Balakrishner
Japan wholesale prices rise more than expected amid U.S. tariff policy uncertainty
Japan’s producer price rose 4.2% in the year to March, data released by the central bank showed on Thursday, underscoring pressure from rising raw material costs that add to corporate pain amid uncertainty over U.S. tariff policy.
The rise in the corporate goods price index (CGPI), a gauge of prices that companies charge each other for their goods and services, topped market forecast for a 3.9% increase and followed a 4.1% gain in February.
The whole prices edged 0.4% higher on a month-on-month basis, the data showed.
— Anniek Bao
Japan’s Nikkei surges over 8% in early trade as Trump tariff pause fuels stock rally in Asia
Japan’s Nikkei 225 share average rallied significantly on Thursday, leading gains in Asia-Pacific.
The benchmark surged 8.83% as at 9.25 a.m. local time to 34,508.62, crossing the 34,000 threshold after six days.
Nikkei 225
Stock market’s historic rally by the numbers
For the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average, it surged nearly 3,000 points, or 7.87%, scoring its biggest advance since March 2020. The 12.16% surge for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite marked its second-best day ever.
— Yun Li
