BANGKOK: Shares were mostly higher Friday in Asia after Nvidia and other technology stocks led an advance on Wall Street.
South Korea's Kospi fell 1 per cent to 6,841.50, while most other regional markets logged moderate gains. US futures were little changed and oil prices slipped.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 climbed 0.8 per cent to 66,682.88, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.3 per cent to 25,648.40.
The Shanghai Composite index was nearly unchanged at 3,956.28.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.3 per cent to 9,063.50.
Taiwan's Taiex surged 1 per cent.
The next big event for markets will be a speech Friday by the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh. Despite pressure to provide guidance on US policy, he has sought to give financial markets fewer clues about how the Fed intends to control inflation.
One wild card for inflation has been oil prices, which have been swinging with uncertainty about the war in Iran and when oil tankers will be allowed to freely navigate the Strait of Hormuz again.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, slipped 0.3 per cent early Friday to USD 88.24. It rose 1.8 per cent on Thursday.
US benchmark crude oil fell 0.4 per cent to USD 83.17 per barrel.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.7 per cent and pulled closer to its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.6 per cent.
Nvidia was the strongest force pulling the market higher. The chip giant rallied 8.7 per cent after once again delivering stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave forecasts for upcoming revenue growth that topped analysts' estimates, suggesting demand remains strong for chips to power artificial intelligence projects.
“AI has reached its inflection point,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said. “It's doing useful work. Its tokens are productive and profitable.”
That helped calm some of the worries that have built around AI stocks generally, which have been under pressure recently. After rocketing higher for years because of the frenzy around AI, stocks in the industry are confronting scepticism that they have shot too high and that booming demand for AI chips may fade if the AI revolution does not produce as much profit as promised.
Another big tech company, Salesforce, jumped 22.6 per cent for its best day in six years after it said that AI helped it deliver one of its best quarters in history.
Salesforce, which helps companies manage their customers' data, also raised its forecast for revenue over the full year and announced an expanded partnership to pair Anthropic's Claude chatbot with its platform. Salesforce's stock struggled earlier on worries that competitors powered by AI could ultimately steal customers from Salesforce and other software companies.
Elsewhere, though, trends were more mixed across big US companies, and the majority of stocks within the S&P 500 fell.
Best Buy and some other retailers sank amid continued worries that US shoppers could be stretched because of high inflation and discouragement about the economy. Best Buy fell 4.4 per cent even though it topped analysts' expectations for both profit and revenue in the latest quarter.
One potential winner from high inflation could be dollar stores, which could see higher-income households become new customers as they look for less expensive places to shop.
Dollar General rose 2.5 per cent after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But rival Dollar Tree sank 3.9 per cent despite blowing past profit expectations. More attention may have been on its forecasted range for an important underlying measure of revenue, whose midpoint fell short of analysts' expectations.
In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher following a report on unemployment benefit applications suggesting the US job market remains solid.
In other dealings early Friday, the US dollar rose to 159.45 Japanese yen from 159.39 yen. The euro was nearly unchanged at USD 1.1651.