Stock Market Today: Asian Stocks Gain Mainly After Tech Stocks Lead Wall St Higher

Asian markets rose on Tuesday after another day of gains on Wall Street, led by technology stocks.

US futures remained almost flat and oil prices rose slightly.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225, which reopened after a national holiday, jumped 1.6% to 38,835.10. This advance was led by semiconductor companies like Tokyo Electron, which closed up 4.8%, and Advantest, which rose 2.2%.

South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.1% to 2,731.83, helped by big tech companies like Samsung Electronics, which posted a 4.5% gain, and smaller rival SK Hynix, which added 3.7%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.5% to 18,470.90. But the Shanghai Composite index recovered from its initial losses, gaining 0.3% to 3,148.56.

Australia S&The P/ASX 200 rose 1.3 per cent to 7,781.70 after the central bank decided to keep interest rates unchanged at 4.35 per cent.

Although the Reserve Bank of Australia has likely set a high bar for any rate hikes, it will likely need several more months of uncertain data before it can be confident it can ease policy. In total, rate cuts will likely take longer to materialize than most people anticipate,” Abhijit Surya of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.6%, while India's Sensex fell 0.7% as the country entered the third phase of the weeks-long national election process.

Monday, the S&The P 500 rose 1% to 5,180.74. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5% to 38,852.27 and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.2% to 16,349.25.

Technology stocks were at the forefront, with familiar leaders Nvidia and Super Micro Computer once again pulling the market higher. They've had some hiccups recently, but the frenzy around artificial intelligence technology has sent Nvidia up 86.1% for the year so far, following a 3.8% gain on Monday. Super Micro is up 192.1% after its 6.1% gain.

Berkshire Hathaway added 1% after the Warren Buffett company reported its latest quarterly results over the weekend.

This helped offset a 9.7% decline in Spirit Airlines, which posted a slightly worse loss than expected. The carrier said it faced increased competition in many of its markets, including between the United States and Latin America.

Apple fell 0.9% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed it had reduced its stake in the tech giant.

The US stock market has been in constant flux since hitting a record high in late March. It has foundered for weeks on concerns that stubbornly high inflation will prevent or at least delay the Federal Reserve from making the interest rate cuts that Wall Street craves.

But markets found renewed optimism at the end of last week following a colder-than-expected employment report. He suggests that the U.S. economy could walk the tightrope and remain strong enough to avoid a serious recession, but not so strong that it puts too much upward pressure on inflation.

Traders are betting on a nearly 89% chance that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at least once before the end of the year, according to CME Group data. This represents an increase from the 81.6% probability observed a week earlier. Lower rates would help ease pressure on the economy and financial system.

Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle said he still expects two rate cuts this year, in July and November, after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell strongly opposed the possibility of further rate hikes during his press conference last week.

This week is relatively calm. Most S companies&The P500 has already reported its earnings for the first three months of the year, with more than three-quarters of earnings beating expectations, according to FactSet.

But several other big names are still on the way, including The Walt Disney Co. and Uber Technologies.

Corporate results were better than expected, not only in the United States but also in Europe and Japan, according to Deutsche Bank strategists. Global earnings growth is on track for a second consecutive quarter of growth after four straight declines.

In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil added 24 cents to $78.72 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 37 cents on Monday.

Brent crude, the international standard, also rose 24 cents to $83.57 a barrel.

The dollar fell from 153.90 Japanese yen to 154.49 yen. The euro was almost unchanged at $1.0769.