This is CNBC’s live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.
Hong Kong stocks rose Tuesday after Wall Street saw a massive drop in shares of tech companies, while several Asia-Pacific markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index traded 0.33% higher.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.65% while the Topix lost 0.41%.
Japan’s chip-related stocks extended losses for a second day as Chinese AI startup DeepSeek‘s challenge to America’s global leadership in artificial intelligence threatens Asian tech companies part of the U.S. AI value chain. Advantest lost 9.66%. Tokyo Electron fell 4.05%, while Renesas Electronics dipped 1.54%.
Australian, Taiwan, South Korean and Chinese markets are closed for holidays.
Investors will be monitoring India’s stock markets after the Reserve Bank of India on Monday announced a slew of plans to pump over $17 billion into the financial ecosystem through measures including bond purchases and currency swaps.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite plunged on concerns about an artificial intelligence stock bubble popping because of the emergence of Chinese startup DeepSeek, which has possibly made a competitive AI model at a fraction of the cost of Silicon Valley models.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 3.07%, falling to 19,341.83, and the S&P 500 slid 1.46% to 6,012.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 289.33 points, or 0.65%, to close at 44,713.58. Gains in Apple, Johnson & Johnson and Travelers helped lift the 30-stock index.
Nvidia lost close to $600 billion in market cap on Monday, the biggest drop for any company on a single day in U.S. history.
—CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han, Fred Imbert Pia Singh and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
Tech-heavy Nasdaq closes 3% lower
Weighed down by a technology sell-off, the Nasdaq Composite ended Monday’s session lower.
The technology-dominated index slipped 3.07% to finish at 19,341.83. The S&P 500 shed 1.46% and closed at 6,012.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to add 289.33 points, or 0.65%, settling at 44,713.58.
— Lisa Kailai Han
Fed will most likely cut rates twice more this year, strategist says
Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, sees two more rate cuts on the horizon for 2025.
“Our base case is that they cut interest rates twice this year, once in the second quarter, and then once again in the fourth quarter,” he told CNBC in a Monday interview.
As for this Wednesday’s FOMC meeting, Stovall is in agreement with many investors who believe that the U.S. central bank will most likely hold rates steady.
— Lisa Kailai Han
Apple overtakes Nvidia as world’s most valuable company
Apple became the most valuable publicly traded company once again on Monday, after Nvidia‘s rout sent its market value plummeting. Microsoft also surpassed the chipmaker, landing in the number two spot.
Shares of Nvidia tumbled 13.5% on concerns over possible competition from Chinese startup DeepSeek, which claims it launched a free, open-source language model at a fraction of the cost of its competitors.
Apple’s market cap currently sits near $3.4 billion, while Microsoft is at $3.2 billion. Nvidia’s market cap is just shy of $3.1 billion.
Just last week, Nvidia had reclaimed the top spot, replacing Apple as the most valuable company.
— Michelle Fox, Nick Wells
