Asian Markets Strengthen, Korea's Kospi Rises Supported by Tech Stocks
Asia-Pacific stock markets opened stronger in trading on Friday (31/07/2026), following a robust rally on Wall Street driven by the performance of giant technology issuers and optimism regarding artificial intelligence (AI) spending. According to CNBC, this positive sentiment emerged even though the market was previously shaken by concerns over the direction of US central bank interest rate policies.
In South Korea, the Kospi index surged by morelag more than 13% after shares of two semiconductor giants, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, soared sharply, triggering a temporary trading halt. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index strengthened by more than 3%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index rose by 0.89%.
The market strength was also driven by the movement of US technology stocks after market close. Amazon shares jumped more than 9% in after-hours trading after reporting second-quarter revenue that exceeded analyst expectations, supported by strong cloud computing business performance which bolstered investor confidence in AI spending prospects.
On the other hand, Apple also reported third-quarter fiscal revenue that exceeded estimates due to a 22% surge in iPhone sales. However, lower-than-expected revenue from its services business caused the company’s shares to fall by approximately 6% in after-hours trading.
This rally follows significant gains on Wall Street during regular trading on Thursday in the US, led by Microsoft. The software company’s shares surged 16% after recording Azure cloud business growth that exceeded market expectations, simultaneously driving up related AI stocks, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) leaping more than 8%.
This recovery occurred after the market faced heavy pressure the previous day. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones index plummeted by more than 1,100 points, marking its largest daily decline since April 2025, after the Federal Reserve decided to maintain its benchmark interest rate, triggering fears that the US central bank was lagging in controlling inflation.
These concerns were also reflected in the US bond market. The yield on 30-year US government bonds rose by 6 basis points to above the 5.2% level, approaching its highest position since 2007.
Richard Bernstein, Global Head of Macro and Customized Investing at Janus Henderson Investors, stated that investors are currently readjusting their expectations regarding Fed rate cuts. According to him, the reduced expectation for monetary easing is diminishing the excess liquidity that has supported the rally in speculative stocks, while market leadership is beginning to shift from the ‘Magnificent Seven’ to companies with improving fundamentals.
Despite increased market volatility throughout the week, major Wall Street indices remain on a weekly upward trajectory. Heading into Friday trading in the US, the Dow Jones was recorded up approximately 0.5% for the week, while the S&P 500 gained about 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite added around 0.6%.