Asia stocks jump as Anthropic IPO filing revives AI trade

Asian stock markets rose on Tuesday as technology shares climbed after Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) company, filed paperwork to sell its shares to the public for the first time. This lifted investor confidence ahead of major company earnings reports and several central bank meetings later this week.

The rise followed gains on Wall Street on Monday. The S&P 500 rose by 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8%, as investors showed renewed interest in AI-related stocks.

U.S. stock market futures also edged higher during Asian trading on Tuesday, as of 02:13 GMT.

KOSPI and Nikkei rise as technology shares respond to Anthropic's IPO plans

South Korea's KOSPI index, which includes many technology companies, rose by more than 4% early in the day. Shares in major companies Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) and SK Hynix (KS:000660) gained 5% and 7%, respectively.

South Korea's economy also grew more than expected in the third quarter, giving technology stocks across the region another boost. The economy grew by 1.0% compared with the previous quarter, faster than the 0.6% growth recorded in the quarter before. Economists had expected growth of 0.7%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose by 2%, while the broader TOPIX index gained 0.6%. Shares in Tokyo-listed SoftBank (TYO:9984) jumped by more than 6%, while Advantest (TYO:6857) climbed nearly 10%.

On Monday, Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, revealed in its IPO filing that its revenue was growing quickly but that it was also facing large losses. The figures showed both the business opportunities offered by generative AI and the high costs of building advanced AI models.

The planned stock market listing has brought fresh attention to whether AI companies can attract investors even as people worry about their ability to make profits and their heavy spending on infrastructure.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose by 3% overnight, its biggest one-day gain in more than a month. Investors returned to chipmakers and companies that supply the equipment and systems needed to run AI.

However, stocks in China and Hong Kong did not rise as much as those in other parts of the region. China's Shanghai Composite and the Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300, an index of major companies, changed little.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell by 0.3%, although major chipmakers SMIC (HK:0981) and Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor (HK:1347) posted small gains.

Major technology earnings and central bank meetings ahead

Elsewhere, Singapore's Straits Times Index fell by 0.1%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose by 0.2%.

Futures linked to India's Nifty 50 index rose by 0.1%.

Investors are preparing for earnings reports from major technology companies, including Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), later this week.

The companies' results and plans for capital spending should help investors judge whether the money they spend on data centres, semiconductors and computing systems is bringing in enough revenue and profit to justify their high stock prices.

AI stocks faced pressure in October as investors questioned whether the huge wave of investment could continue. Borrowing costs also remain high.

Investors are also preparing for interest rate decisions from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan.

All three central banks are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged. Investors will pay close attention to what policymakers say for clues about the future direction of borrowing costs.

Oil prices and political tensions around the world remain other sources of uncertainty. Oil prices continued to fall on Tuesday after reaching levels close to six-month highs. Diplomatic efforts raised hopes that tensions in the Middle East could ease, although attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure kept fears of possible supply disruptions alive.

If energy prices remain high, they could push inflation up and make decisions harder for central banks. This could limit how much they can lower interest rates.