Asia-Pacific stock markets staged a significant rebound in early trading on Monday.
By the midday close, the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 2.5% to 250.39 points, marking its largest single-day gain in nearly three months. Breaking it down by market:
Taiwan's weighted index posted the most dramatic gain, surging as much as 6.7% during the session before closing up roughly 5.9% at 42,084 points, ending a seven-day losing streak. The Nikkei 225 rose 3.4%, with the Topix also up 3.4%. South Korea's Kospi extended its gains to 2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged up 0.2%, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.4%, showing relatively modest performance. Australia's ASX 200 gained 0.1%, essentially flat.
US stock futures also strengthened in tandem: S&P 500 futures rose 0.6%, and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.7%, extending the rebound momentum from last Friday.
Earlier, Taiwan pledged to take action to calm investor panic, including implementing a short-selling restriction starting Monday and preparing to launch a NT$500 billion fund.
Last week's rout created the soil for a rebound
Last week, after the US midterm elections gave Democrats full control of Congress, the market immediately grew concerned that Democrats would impose stricter regulation on the AI industry, covering issues such as consumer protection, independent testing requirements, and liability determination. The S&P 500 recorded its largest weekly decline since April 2025, while the Nasdaq 100 shed $2.3 trillion in market value in just one day on Thursday. Both Japanese and Taiwanese stock markets fell into bear market territory, with South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each dropping more than 16% for the week.
Huang Renxun scandal — "noise" rather than "signal"
Another major focus in today's market is the personal controversy surrounding NVIDIA (NVDA) CEO Huang Renxun.
On Sunday, Huang Renxun publicly acknowledged an extramarital affair and apologized. NVIDIA's board of directors subsequently announced the launch of an independent investigation to review his relationship with a female executive suspected by US intelligence agencies of being a Chinese spy. Following the news, NVIDIA shares fell more than 3% in US overnight trading, and Nasdaq 100 futures also dropped 1% in the early Asian session.
However, this decline was quickly absorbed, and futures fully recovered their losses.
Why is the market relatively calm about this? Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, offered an explanation: "If traders can see that the data center construction outlook remains clear, the Huang Renxun story is more like short-term noise that will gradually fade from view."
In other words, the market's current judgment is: the Huang Renxun incident is a personal risk, not an industry risk. As long as the capital expenditure cycle for AI infrastructure has not fundamentally reversed, NVIDIA's business logic will not be shaken.
Of course, the risk has not disappeared. Yorkville Ives analyst Daniel Ives warned that if the investigation results in Huang Renxun's removal, it would deal a substantial blow to the stock price. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon also directly pointed out that NVIDIA has "key person risk" — currently "it's not clear who could succeed." This unresolved uncertainty remains a potential drag on NVIDIA's stock price.
A decline of this magnitude inherently creates conditions for buying on dips. Last Friday, US markets already saw bargain-hunting funds enter, and today Asia-Pacific markets are carrying that sentiment forward.
Other assets: oil pulls back, dollar weakens, gold hits new high
Crude oil: Brent crude edged down 0.1% to $98.06 per barrel. CNN reported that Trump said if negotiations with Iran make progress, he is "very unlikely" to order further strikes on Iran, with geopolitical risk premiums receding somewhat. US dollar: The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%, with the dollar broadly weakening against G10 currencies. US Treasuries: The 10-year Treasury yield rose 2 basis points to 4.88%, with bond prices under slight pressure. Gold: Spot gold rose 1.2% to $4,117.87 per ounce, continuing to set a record high. Bitcoin: Up 1.4% to $75,083.
The next key event: US inflation data
The market has now shifted its attention to US CPI data due on Tuesday. Traders currently price in close to an 80% probability of a rate hike this year. If inflation data exceeds expectations, it will directly affect the Federal Reserve's rate path assessment, in turn putting pressure on tech stock valuations.
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