Asian markets mostly higher in quiet holiday trading after AI deals push Wall St to more records

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TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Tuesday in quiet holiday trading, while Japan’s benchmark rose to new records on hope for more government spending and lower taxes under Japan’s first woman prime minister.

U.S. futures slipped and oil prices rose. Markets in mainland China and South Korea were closed.

Over the weekend, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democrats chose conservative lawmaker Sanae Takaichi as their leader, likely making her the country's first woman prime minister. That pushed the Nikkei 225 index up nearly 5% on Monday.

The Nikkei 225 added 0.3% in afternoon trading to 48,083.08.

The ruling Liberal Democrats need coalition partners to stay in power, and politicians are maneuvering ahead of a vote in the lower house of parliament later this month. It's unclear how aggressively Takaichi can push her agenda to boost Japan out of its economic doldrums, given that she faces opposition from within her own party as well as others.

But investors have jumped in, expecting Takaichi, an admirer of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to adopt market-boosting policies

Elsewhere in the region, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 8,956.80. In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 1.7%. Other markets in Southeast Asia were higher.

On Monday. Wall Street kept setting more records, buoyed by enthusiasm over artificial-intelligence.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.4% to set an all-time high, closing at 6,740.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.1% to 46,694.97, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.7% to its own record, ending at 22,941.67.

Advanced Micro Devices helped lead the way and soared 23.7% after announcing a deal where OpenAI will use its chips to power AI infrastructure. As part of the deal, OpenAI could own up to 160 million shares of AMD if it hits certain milestones.

The frenzy around AI is a key reason Wall Street has been hitting record after record, though that’s also raising worries that prices have potentially shot too high. Much of the furor around AI in the last couple weeks has come from OpenAI, which has quickly grown into a $500 billion company. It’s been announcing deals with businesses around the world to develop more AI infrastructure.

Another chip company, Nvidia, announced a deal last month where it would invest $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership, creating criticism that the AI investment pipeline was beginning to appear like a circle. Nvidia slipped 1.1% following the AMD announcement. Because it’s the most valuable stock on Wall Street, Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

Outside of tech, Comerica jumped 13.7% after Fifth Third Bancorp agreed to buy it in an all-stock deal valued at $10.9 billion. The combination would create the country’s ninth-largest bank. Fifth Third’s stock fell 1.4%.

Tesla rose 5.4% after social-media postings by the electric-vehicle maker hinted at a possible product unveiling Tuesday.

Verizon Communications fell 5.1% after the telecom giant replaced its chief executive. Dan Schulman, a director at the company and former CEO of PayPal, is taking over for Hans Vestburg.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, trading was relatively quiet as the stock market continues to largely ignore a U.S. government shutdown. Past federal government closures have had minimal effect on the stock market or on the economy. Investors are betting something similar will happen again.

“It’s as if traders are watching the government drama like a rerun, confident that the ending never really changes,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.16% from 4.13% late Friday.

In other dealings early Tuesday, benchmark U.S. crude rose 16 cents to $61.85 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 17 cents to $65.64 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar edged up to 150.49 Japanese yen from 150.35 yen. The euro cost $1.1695, down from $1.1714.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama