SINGAPORE: Stocks rose on Thursday (May 21) 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 1.2 per cent, snapping a four-day streak of losses as the Kospi surged more than 4 per cent.
Brent crude futures edged up 0.7 per cent to US$105.76 a barrel in Asia trade, retracing declines after three supertankers passed through the strait on Wednesday and Iran consolidated its control of the waterway.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 1.1 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.5 per cent after three days of declines, as President Donald Trump said the United States was ready to proceed with further attacks on Iran if Tehran did not agree to a peace deal, but suggested 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 US 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 1.1 per cent in extended trading, while S&P 500 e-mini futures slipped 0.5 per cent.
“The market’s reaction was relatively muted by its own lofty standards,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG in Sydney.
“The lack of any China sales in the outlook and guidance that was only modestly ahead of expectations left some investors wanting a bit more fireworks.”
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