Asian stocks advanced on Wednesday as investor concerns over unpredictable policymaking in Washington pushed the US dollar to its weakest level in nearly four years, while gold climbed to a fresh record high.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.7 per cent to an all-time high, extending a rally that has been building for nearly three years. A regional gauge of technology stocks also hit a record, with gains led by memory-chip makers including SK Hynix Inc.
In early trading, US equity-index futures moved higher after reports that SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to invest an additional $30 billion in OpenAI, reinforcing optimism around artificial intelligence-driven growth.
Not all markets shared the upbeat mood. Indonesian stocks plunged as much as 7 per cent after MSCI Inc. raised concerns about the investability of the country’s equity market, triggering a sharp sell-off.
Meanwhile, the dollar showed mixed movement. After the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid to its lowest level since February 2022 during the US session—following comments from President Donald Trump that he was unconcerned about the currency’s weakness—the greenback recovered some ground on Wednesday, strengthening against all its Group-of-10 peers.
Asian currencies reacted to the earlier dollar decline, with the Malaysian ringgit and South Korean won posting gains.
“The Trump administration is taking a calculated risk,” said Win Thin, chief economist at Bank of Nassau 1982 Ltd.
“Foreign exchange typically is the leader in terms of showing market discomfort with a country’s policies and economic outlook, so this dollar weakness bears watching.”
Asian equities have benefited from sustained AI-driven gains, as investors increasingly diversify away from US assets and rotate into regional markets offering more attractive valuations and stronger growth prospects. That momentum faces a crucial test this week as megacap technology companies begin reporting earnings and markets await the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision later Wednesday.
Technology remained the dominant theme across Asian markets, with memory and storage chipmakers climbing after overnight advances in US peers and ahead of rare dual earnings calls on Thursday by Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix, events closely watched by global tech investors.
