Investing.com - Asian stock futures experienced an uptick as Wall Street witnessed a resurgence in tech giants, causing investors to shift their attention towards Friday's employment numbers and the possibility of the Federal Reserve halting its interest rate hikes in June.
Equity benchmarks for Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia progressed due to the increasing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) stocks like NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), which saw a 5% increase leading gains in Nasdaq 100. Market participants are also preparing for Friday's job reports that could potentially lead to a moderation in hiring rates and give the Fed room to pause interest rate hikes next month. As bond yields dropped and the dollar suffered its most significant decline in over two months, AI-related investments drove mega-cap shares up by 17% during May.
Although Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO), one of the largest chipmakers globally, reported that sales driven by AI equipment demand were insufficient to counterbalance a wider post-pandemic slowdown. Nicholas Colas from DataTrek Research questioned how many more times US big tech could offer outsized positive equity returns compared to other global markets.
The S&P 500 index rose by 1%, reclaiming its previous position at around 4,200 points while Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)'s contrarian indicator showed it was nearing a "buy" signal unseen since six years ago.
Federal Reserve officials have indicated they plan on maintaining steady interest rates throughout June but remain open for future increases depending on market conditions ahead of crucial employment data. Meanwhile, the Treasury is considering delaying its regular three and six-month bill auctions tentatively scheduled for next Monday due to statutory debt limit constraints.