Asian stocks surged on Thursday as some vessels resumed passage through the Strait of Hormuz, while forecast-beating results at Nvidia and a suspended workers' strike at Samsung Electronics lifted shares of chipmakers.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 2.6%, snapping a four-day streak of losses. Korea's leapt more than 7%, Taiwanese shares rose 3.5% and Chinese blue-chips gained 1.1%.
Brent crude futures edged up 0.6% to $105.68 a barrel in Asia trade, retracing declines after three supertankers passed through the strait on Wednesday and Iran consolidated its control of the waterway.
Supply concerns persist though following a U.S. inventory drawdown. On Wednesday, Wall Street rose 1.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.5% after three days of losses.
Gains came as President Donald Trump said the U.S. was ready for further action against Iran if no peace deal was reached, but indicated Washington could wait a few days to “get the right answers.”
"Oil prices declined and other major markets rallied, as investors took comfort from headlines quoting Trump saying the U.S. was in the 'final stages' with Iran," analysts from Westpac wrote in a research report.
Asian chipmakers' shares rose after Nvidia's better-than-expected revenue forecast on Wednesday as CEO Jensen Huang aimed to reassure investors that the world's most valuable company can sustain blockbuster growth in demand for its flagship AI chips.
"The chip landscape remains Nvidia’s world with everybody else paying rent, as more sovereigns and enterprises wait in line for Nvidia's chips," said Dan Ives, Global Head of Technology Research at Wedbush Securities in New York.
However, Nvidia's shares fell 1.3% in extended trading, while S&P 500 e-mini futures slipped 0.2%.
"The market’s reaction was relatively muted by its own lofty standards," said Tony Sycamore, Market Analyst at IG in Sydney.
In Seoul, Samsung Electronics shares surged 6% after the electronics giant's union said it would suspend industrial action upon reaching a tentative pay deal with the company, averting a strike by nearly 48,000 workers that threatened South Korea's economy and global chip supply.
However, the rally was blunted after a shareholder group said the management's tentative pay deal with its labour union was illegal.
Japan's Nikkei 225 share jumped 3.6% after S&P Global's flash manufacturing PMI showed expansion in May, albeit at a slower pace than a month earlier, slipping to 54.5 from 55.1 in April, but still firmly above the mark separating growth from contraction.
"By and large, external demand has turned out exceptionally strong despite the U.S.-Iran conflict," analysts from DBS wrote in a research report.
Separately, Japanese exports rose 14.8% year-on-year in April, Finance Ministry data showed, rising for an eighth straight month and confounding fears of stagflation in the global economy. Against the yen, the dollar was flat at 158.84 yen.
The Aussie dollar sank 0.7% to $0.7105 after Australian employment unexpectedly fell in April, while the jobless rate jumped to the highest since late 2021.
Flash PMI data showed activity in the country's service industry slowed to 47.7 in May from 50.7 a month earlier, though a corresponding manufacturing gauge held at 50.2, just above the mark separating expansion from contraction.
Minutes from the Federal Reserve's 28-29 April meeting showed policymakers' concerns about inflation intensified last month, with a growing number open to the possibility that they may need to raise interest rates.
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Saudi Arabia said its overnight strikes on Iran-backed group targets in Iraq were carried out in self-defence and warned it would take further military action if the groups launched new attacks against the kingdom.
Yemen warned the Houthis were seeking to replicate Iran's Strait of Hormuz strategy in the Red Sea, as U.S. President Donald Trump said there was a "good chance" of a deal with Tehran but warned strikes could resume if talks failed.
The U.S. military said it completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran, a two-hour operation that hit dozens of targets. Washington described the strikes as a "powerful response" to Iranian missile attacks targeting U.S. forces in the Middle East a day earlier.
A fire involving two gas vessels at Egypt's Damietta port has prompted conflicting reports over whether the incident was caused by a drone strike or an onboard technical fault. Egyptian authorities said there were no casualties.
Ford raised its full-year earnings forecast after reporting stronger-than-expected second-quarter adjusted profit, as resilient demand for its vehicles and operational improvements helped offset tariff-related costs.
SK Hynix reported record quarterly profit on Wednesday, but its shares slumped 10 per cent after the South Korean chipmaker fell short of investor expectations built around the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Oil prices have fallen more than six per cent as a pause in U.S.-Iran hostilities eased fears of wider supply disruption around the Gulf.
Paramount Skydance agreed to pause its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery until after a ruling on a challenge by states to the deal, plunging the $110 billion deal into further uncertainty.
China's Foreign Ministry has said it is closely monitoring the United Kingdom's nationalisation of British Steel. Prior to the British government fully taking over the loss-making company on Thursday, it was previously owned by Chinese private steelmaker Jingye.
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