Oil prices remain volatile this week, and uncertainty is lingering in the Middle East. But global stock prices have been resilient in recent weeks. And that’s especially true in the Asia Pacific.
From India to Australia and Japan to South Korea, many stock markets in the Asia Pacific are at or near record highs.
That's despite warnings of negative economic impacts of energy shipments backed up at the Strait of Hormuz — and uncertainty in sectors from trade to travel.
This week, the main indices of stock markets in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan all shattered previous record highs.
One factor pushing those three markets higher: stocks related to AI.
South Korea has been the most dramatic example — with the benchmark Kospi Index up more than 70% this year — powered in large part by semiconductor companies.
This week, the market capitalization of Samsung Electronics passed a trillion dollars — a mark that only a handful of other companies have broken.
The only other trillion-dollar company in Asia is another chip company: Taiwan's TSCMC.
Other factors at play in the market right now include the early part of the current corporate earnings season — with many companies reporting stronger than expected results.
Recent positive talk of negotiations between Iran and the United States is another factor, although fragile — at least in the short term, negative surprises can quickly send shares the other way as well.
