The Nikkei 225 Index rose 1.1% toward the 64,000 mark on Wednesday, advancing for a second consecutive session and mirroring gains on Wall Street amid renewed optimism around artificial intelligence. The upswing followed Broadcom’s announcement of $63 billion in financing tied to Anthropic’s use of its technology. In South Korea, chipmaker SK Hynix reported a sharp increase in both revenue and operating profit, supported by strong AI-related demand.
At the same time, oil prices fell amid fresh diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the Middle East, reducing cost pressures for oil-importing economies. Investors also focused on key central bank meetings scheduled for this week, with the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, and Bank of Japan all widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, even as markets evaluate the likelihood of possible rate hikes in December.
Technology and AI-related stocks led the advance, with notable gains in Kioxia (7.3%), Advantest (2.3%), Taiyo Yuden (7.7%), SoftBank Group (2.3%), and Ibiden Co. (5.6%).
