Asian equity markets rebounded sharply on Monday, recovering part of last week's tech-led rout, but the recovery was tempered by a board investigation into Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Taiwan's Taiex jumped as much as 6.7% before closing up 4.94% at 41,664.7, its biggest one-day gain since July 31. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 3.45%, the Topix added 2.82%, South Korea's Kospi advanced 1.68%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng inched up 0.19%. The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.8% after last week's 4.6% drop.
The rebound was led by semiconductor names. TSMC climbed more than 6%, while Foxconn parent Hon Hai Precision Industry surged over 8%. Samsung Electronics gained 2.7% and SK Hynix rose 4.77%. In Europe, ASML added 1.7% and the Stoxx 600 technology index rose 1.3%. The buying followed Friday's bargain hunting on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.09% to 24,579.42 and the S&P 500 gained 0.31% to 7,376.86, though the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.46% to 51,285.73.
Nvidia remained a key source of caution. The company's board launched an independent probe into CEO Jensen Huang's affair with Alice Huang, who U.S. intelligence agencies allege may have connections to Beijing. Jensen admitted the affair and apologized, while an Nvidia spokesperson said he intended to continue running the company without interruption. Nvidia shares were down more than 5% in premarket trading, and Intel, Marvell Technology, Qualcomm, and Arm each lost more than 1% early. A proxy for Nvidia shares traded on Hyperliquid also dropped 2% over the preceding 24 hours.
Broader market sentiment was supported by healthy futures: Dow futures gained 0.76%, Nasdaq 100 futures about 0.5%, and S&P 500 futures 0.34%. Traders now face key inflation data, with the consumer price index due Tuesday and the producer price index on Friday. Earnings from CoreWeave, Cisco, and Applied Materials will also be watched for signs of continued AI infrastructure investment. For crypto markets, the rebound in global risk assets offers a potentially supportive macro backdrop, though Nvidia-related uncertainty and upcoming US inflation figures could keep risk appetite uneven.
