Asian stock markets largely rose on Wednesday, tracking a rally on Wall Street led by artificial intelligence-related shares, while US stock futures posted modest gains and oil prices increased by more than 1%.
South Korea's Kospi jumped 6.8% to finish at 6,023.73, buoyed by strong performances from semiconductor companies.
SK Hynix shares surged 11.4% to their highest level in two weeks after the memory chipmaker reported a record operating profit of 83.3 trillion won ($62.8 billion) for the previous quarter. The profit was almost seven times its level a year earlier and surpassed analysts' forecasts.
Samsung Electronics advanced 9.1% ahead of its third-quarter earnings report due Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed 1.1% to 63,954.19, while Kioxia Holdings gained 9.6% ahead of its quarterly results scheduled for Friday. Investors are also awaiting the Bank of Japan's two-day policy meeting beginning Thursday, with interest rates widely expected to remain unchanged.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index recovered 0.2% to 23,089.22 after slipping earlier, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5% to 3,666.50. Taiwan's Taiex added 2%.
India's Sensex, however, dropped 0.8%. The decline came despite Jio Platforms gaining 21% on its stock market debut following India's largest-ever initial public offering. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.3% to 8,847.30.
In New Zealand, the Reserve Bank surprised markets by maintaining its benchmark interest rate at 2.75%. The S&P/NZX 50 Index edged up 0.1%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.6% on Tuesday, moving to within 1.2% of its record high reached earlier this month. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1%.
Despite declines in most S&P 500 companies, gains in major AI-related stocks lifted the index. Investors have been concerned about the growing expense of borrowing money to construct data centres and acquire AI chips.
Broadcom shares rose 4% after the company announced a $63 billion financing deal involving several Wall Street firms to help artificial intelligence company Anthropic obtain Broadcom's XPU accelerators and networking solutions.
Nvidia gained 0.9%, while CoreWeave, which finances purchases of AI chips and rents computing capacity through cloud services, climbed 7.9%.
Companies are under increasing pressure to deliver substantial profit growth as investors maintain high expectations. Those expectations have helped drive share prices to record levels despite persistent inflation, high interest rates and other market concerns.
Boeing shares fell 10.7% after the aircraft manufacturer reported a quarterly loss greater than analysts had expected.
Meanwhile, US consumer confidence improved in October, according to a report released Tuesday, reversing expectations among economists that it would deteriorate further amid continuing inflationary pressures.
In bond markets, US Treasury yields remained broadly stable ahead of the Federal Reserve's latest interest rate announcement. The Fed raised its benchmark rate for the first time in three years last month to combat inflation, but markets largely expect it to keep rates unchanged this time.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note slipped to 4.99% from 5.00% late Monday.
Oil prices also advanced on Wednesday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.5% to $111.10 a barrel, while US benchmark crude increased 1.6% to $101.46.
In currency markets, the US dollar weakened to 157.85 Japanese yen from 157.91 yen. The euro traded at $1.1118, down from $1.1127.