Asia Equities: Mixed Session as Wall Street Highs Lift Sentiment; Australia Lags on Hot CPI

Market snapshot

Wall Street closed at record highs; U.S. equity futures were little changed.
Nikkei 225 +2% to a fresh record 51,311.47; KOSPI up as much as 1.7% to a record 4,078.99 on AI momentum.
CSI 300 +0.5%, Shanghai Comp +0.4%; Hong Kong closed for holiday.
Singapore STI −0.3%; India Nifty 50 +0.2%.
Australia S&P/ASX 200 −0.9% after hotter-than-expected inflation.

Drivers and Details

Japan’s Nikkei 225 notched a new all-time high, with chip and AI-adjacent names leading.
Nvidia rallied ~5% overnight in the U.S. after announcing plans to build seven AI supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy, reinforcing global AI-capex tailwinds.
Korea’s KOSPI hit a record as SK Hynix jumped on a record Q3 profit, buoyed by robust demand for HBM chips used in AI servers.
Japanese sentiment was additionally supported by a newly signed U.S.–Japan rare earths agreement, seen as positive for supply-chain resilience.

Mainland China stocks advanced modestly (CSI 300 +0.5%; Shanghai +0.4%) amid a constructive global lead.
Hong Kong was shut for a public holiday.
Singapore slipped (STI −0.3%), while India’s Nifty 50 inched higher (+0.2%), underscoring mixed risk appetite across Asia.

Markets are fixed on the U.S. Federal Reserve policy decision later today, with consensus looking for a 25 bps rate cut.
Beyond the headline cut, traders will parse guidance on the path of further easing and any tweaks to quantitative tightening.
Earnings from Microsoft and Alphabet are due later and could sway the post-Fed equity narrative.

Australia’s Q3 CPI surprised to the upside: headline +1.3% q/q; trimmed mean +1.0% q/q, lifting the annual trimmed mean to 3.0%.
The data knocked back expectations for near-term RBA easing, with markets pushing a potential rate cut closer to year-end.
The inflation beat pressured local risk assets, sending the ASX 200 down 0.9%.

Fed statement and dots/press conference tone for signals on the glide path of cuts and QT.
U.S. mega-cap tech earnings for AI demand read-throughs and capex guidance.
RBA-rate path repricing in Aussie rates and knock-on effects for AUD and ASX sector dispersion.