Asian stocks surge as Anthropic IPO and AI shares draw attention

SEOUL – Asian stock markets rose sharply on Tuesday as plans for Anthropic to sell shares to the public for the first time, known as an initial public offering (IPO), encouraged investors to take more risks.

According to Reuters, investors were also watching earnings reports from major technology companies and decisions by several central banks. These decisions will help shape expectations for interest rates around the world.

Anthropic, the company that makes the Claude chatbot, reported that its revenue had grown quickly. However, its US IPO filing also showed that the company had suffered large losses.

These figures have caught investors' attention as they increasingly question whether huge investments in artificial intelligence (AI) will bring enough returns and whether companies can turn those investments into profits.

Market confidence also received support from Meta Platforms' plan to raise up to USD 95 billion. If completed, this would be the largest share sale in the company's history.

In stock markets, South Korea's KOSPI index jumped more than 4% in early trading. Japan's Nikkei index rose 1.9%, while the MSCI Asia-Pacific index, which excludes Japan, gained 1.2%.

Nasdaq futures rose 0.4% after a US index tracking semiconductor stocks gained 2.8% in the previous trading session. This was the index's biggest one-day rise in a month.

In contrast, European stock futures fell 0.23%.

Big Tech earnings put AI investment to the test

More than one-third of the companies in the S&P 500 index are due to report their earnings this week. Major technology companies, including Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, are among those investors are watching closely.

Investors want to see whether the large amounts of money being spent on AI development are supported by steady demand and can produce lasting returns.

Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise, said investors would look for signs that demand for AI was spreading across more businesses. They also wanted to know that this demand was not mainly coming from business deals between companies connected to one another in the industry.

He said investors needed to be confident that higher spending on AI infrastructure was driven by long-term business needs. They also needed evidence that companies could keep making profits after the new infrastructure began operating.

Central bank decisions in focus

Investors are also waiting for interest rate decisions from the US Federal Reserve (Fed), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ).

Economists expect all three central banks to keep interest rates unchanged. This means markets will focus on what policymakers say about the likely direction of interest rates in the future.

Fed officials had previously indicated that they would not raise short-term interest rates at this week's meeting.

However, concerns about inflation that remains high have led investors to expect the pause in rate increases to be brief. Markets are even taking into account the possibility that the Fed could raise rates in December.

Geng Ngarmboonanant of J.P. Morgan Asset Management said the US economy could remain strong even with higher interest rates.

Meanwhile, the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds remained steady at 4.992%. It stayed below the 5% level it briefly passed in September, when investors moved their money into safer assets as stock markets became more volatile. (DK/ZH)