World Shares Eke Out Record Highs As Europe And Wall Street Turn Subdued

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) World stocks were at all-time highs on Thursday as nerves around AI disruption faded, while Japan’s yen regained its footing after its latest drop and gold ticked higher ahead of talks between the U.S. and Iran.

A dive back into tech after Nvidia’s results had lifted Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s KOSPI to record highs in Asia, although Europe’s moves were more mixed and Wall Street futures were shuffling sideways.

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London Stock Exchange Group’s shares jumped almost 6% in London as it announced a $4.1 billion buyback, whereas Belgian chemicals maker Syensqo’s dropped almost 22% after disappointing earnings.

Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones futures were all little changed, as traders continued to digest Nvidia’s numbers. The world’s most valuable company guided its first-quarter revenues would come in at a whopping $78 billion on Big Tech’s unabated spending on its AI processors.

Nvidia’s shares edged higher in premarket dealing. There had initially been a more positive reaction in extended hours trading on Wednesday but that faded after the company’s conference call offered limited detail on the revenue outlook and batted away talk of a cash return.

Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said the reaction was “perhaps a sign of investors’ increased anxiety over AI valuations,” especially given Nvidia had delivered 73% year-over-year revenue growth with 75% gross margins.

STARMER DRAMA

In Europe, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called a parliamentary election for next month in a bid to capitalise on a surge in support for her defiant stance against U.S. pressure over Greenland.

Britain’s pound was sinking towards $1.35 with voting underway in an election for a vacated parliament seat that will be an acid test for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Starmer’s party won the seat easily in the most recent national elections, but polls say it is now too close to call between the ruling Labour Party, populist Reform UK party and the left-leaning Greens.

“You don’t meet a lot of people who ask should I be buying the pound,” Societe Generale’s Kit Juckes said.

“But they (Labour) have got such a big majority and we are not going to get a national election,” he said, adding the bigger focus was how Britain’s economic growth rates fare.

February has been a choppy month for the main U.S. share indexes which have been impacted by the wavering sentiment towards AI and tech, as well as jitters around private credit markets and U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Salesforce’s shares were the latest to be pointing lower on Thursday after a lower-than-expected revenue forecast. The SP 500 software and services sub-index is currently down more than 20% year-to-date.

PUSH AND PULL

The dollar was subdued as the yen bounced off its recent lows on comments from Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda that kept the prospect of a near-term BOJ rate hike alive.

It came days after a report Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had expressed her reservations about further rate rises at a meeting with Ueda. The government has also just nominated two pro-stimulus academics for the BOJ board.

“It’s kind of a push and pull, and the BOJ is walking a very fine line,” said David Chao, Invesco’s global market strategist for Asia Pacific.

“However, we still believe that the central bank will hike rates twice this year, and the yen is likely to be one of the best performing currencies,” he added.

Japan’s Nikkei finished fractionally higher having set its latest record high in Tokyo.

South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 3%, a move primarily driven by chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix and one that Deutsche Bank’s Reid pointed out took the KOSPI’s gain this year to just shy of 50%.

Oil markets see-sawed as uncertainty remained about the threat to supply from a potential military conflict between the U.S. and Iran.

The two sides were holding the latest round of talks in Geneva on Thursday aimed at resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute and averting new U.S. strikes on Iran following a large-scale military buildup.

Brent crude futures climbed to $71.20 a barrel in Asia but dropped back to below $70 in London, with U.S. crude down at $65 after data showed U.S. crude inventories jumped by the most in three years.

Safe-haven gold ticked up roughly 0.5% to $5,190 an ounce, albeit still below the series of record highs it struck late last month.

“Iran-U.S. persisting tensions and the uncertainty surrounding the global economy with (President Donald) Trump’s tariffs are a bullish catalyst,” said Swissquote analyst Carlo Alberto De Casa.

(Additional reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore and Noel John in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Graff and Jane Merriman)

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