Global Markets Mixed Following Wall Street AI Rally and Saudi Refinery Attack

Global stock markets showed mixed movements following a Wall Street rally driven by artificial intelligence shares. Meanwhile, oil prices rose over 1 percent due to supply concerns stemming from a refinery attack in Saudi Arabia, and India's Sensex declined while Jio Platforms debuted following a major IPO.

World shares were mixed on Wednesday following gains on Wall Street driven by artificial intelligence stocks. US futures edged higher, while oil prices rose more than 1 percent after an attack on a major Saudi Arabia refinery by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Tuesday renewed supply concerns.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX fell 0.2 percent to 25,539.36, and France's CAC 40 declined 0.1 percent to 7,882.52. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.4 percent to 10,645.50. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures decreased 0.2 percent.

Asian markets presented a varied picture. South Korea's Kospi rose 6.8 percent to close at 6,023.73, supported by memory chipmaker SK Hynix, which jumped 11.4 percent to a two-week high after reporting a record-high quarterly operating profit of 83.3 trillion won ($62.8 billion). Samsung Electronics also surged 9.1 percent ahead of its upcoming earnings report. Japan's Nikkei 225 rallied 1.1 percent to 63,954.19, with semiconductor maker Kioxia Holdings climbing 9.6 percent ahead of its earnings report. The Bank of Japan is scheduled to begin a two-day policy meeting, with interest rates widely expected to remain unchanged.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng gained 0.3 percent to 23,104.91, the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.9 percent to 3,681.47, and Taiwan's Taiex advanced 2 percent. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 increased 0.3 percent to 8,847.30, and New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index edged 0.1 percent higher after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept its benchmark interest rate at 2.75 percent.

In India, the Sensex fell 0.8 percent. However, Jio Platforms, India's largest telecom company, surged 21 percent in its market debut following the country's largest-ever initial public offering.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent on Tuesday, moving closer to its all-time high, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1 percent. Although the majority of stocks within the S&P 500 fell, gains in influential AI companies offset the declines. Broadcom climbed 4 percent after announcing a $63 billion financing deal to help Anthropic access its XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions. Nvidia added 0.9 percent, and CoreWeave rose 7.9 percent.

Companies continue to face pressure from financial analysts and investors to deliver strong profit growth despite high inflation and interest rates. In the bond market, Treasury yields remained relatively steady ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury edging down to 4.99 percent from 5.00 percent.

In commodity markets, international standard Brent crude oil rose 1.4 percent to $110.99 a barrel, and US benchmark crude gained 1.4 percent to $101.33 per barrel. In currency trading, the US dollar slid to 157.74 Japanese yen, and the euro traded slightly lower at $1.1123.

"The recent market movements demonstrate the powerful influence of the artificial intelligence sector on global equities, even as traditional sectors face headwinds from inflation and borrowing costs. Furthermore, the strong market debut of Jio Platforms following India's largest IPO highlights continued investor appetite for large-scale digital and telecom assets amidst broader macroeconomic adjustments." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes