Japanese and Chinese Stocks Demonstrated Their Strength

On Wednesday, stocks in Asia-Pacific strengthened their positions, with Hong Kong stocks in Hong Kong leading gains regionally.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 2.06% to close at 24,829 as Chinese tech stocks bounced back from their Tuesday losses. Shares of Alibaba added 6.83%, and Tencent gained 2.72%. Netease added 4.88%.

Mainland Chinese stocks rose on Wednesday. The Shanghai composite added 0.79% to end its trading day at 3,479.95. The Shenzhen component gained 1.545% to 13,531.31.

The Nikkei 225 advanced 1.08% in Japan to finish its trading day at 27,579.87. The Topix index added 0.94% to 1,952.22. Shares of Softbank Group jumped 5.85%. One day earlier, the Japanese conglomerate announced plans to take Arm public following the collapse of a planned sale of the unit to Nvidia. 

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia added 1.14% to 7,268.30 as bank stocks jumped on Wednesday. Commonwealth Bank of Australia gained 5.58% and Westpac added 2.43%. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group gained 1.71% while National Australia Bank advanced 2.38%. 

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.81% to close at 1.52%.

U.S. stocks on Tuesday

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks rose as investors analyzed another batch of corporate earnings and awaited key inflation data later this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 371.65 points or about 1.06% to 35,462.78. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 added 0.84% to 4,521.54. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.28% to 14,191.45. 

Corporate earnings helped to boost stocks on Tuesday. Harley-Davidson gained more than 15% after it reported a surprise profit for the fourth quarter. Amgen added 7.8% and Chegg nearly 1.6%, following their quarterly earnings.

Shares of American Express added 3.3% and JPMorgan rose 1.9%, boosting the Dow. 

On the contrary, shares of Pfizer dropped 2.8% after the company’s fourth-quarter revenue came in lower than Wall Street analysts expected.