Asia markets: CPI, Inflation, Nvidia, FOMC

Asia-Pacific markets opened higher on Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street after a volatile session spurred by inflation data.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3% in early trading and the broad-based Topix advanced 2.48%.

Asian chipmaking heavyweights rallied after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a compelling case for the future demand for AI chips.

“AI is not about a chip. AI is about an infrastructure,” the founder of the artificial intelligence chip powerhouse said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco.

Demand for the company’s advanced AI products is “tense,” he said.

SK Hynix soared over 6% and Samsung Electronics traded 2.3% higher. Tokyo Electron rose 5.2% and shares of SoftBank Group, which owns a stake in chip designer Arm, jumped over 6%.

Japan’s producer price index rose 2.5% year-on-year in August, less than the expected 2.8% and the 3% reported in the previous month. The data is among the key indicators closely watched by the Bank of Japan. The central bank has signaled it intends to further raise interest rates in coming months.

Investors will also look toward the release of Hong Kong’s producer price index for the second quarter this afternoon.

India is also poised to release its August consumer price index late Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters expect it to rise 3.5% year-on-year, compared to 3.54% in July.

Chinese home appliance maker Midea Group plans to price its shares at the top of the range in a deal that would raise at least $3.46 billion in a Hong Kong listing, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The listing is set to be the largest offering in Hong Kong since May 2021.

In South Korea, Kospi opened 1.2% higher and the small cap Kosdaq gained 2.5%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 0.6%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were at 17,194, higher than the HSI’s last close of 17,108.71.

Futures for mainland China’s CSI 300 stood at 3,181.6, lower than its Wednesday close at 3,186.13.

Overnight in the U.S., the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 1.07%, while the Nasdaq Composite rallied 2.17%. The Dow Jones Industrial Index inched up 0.31%.

The major benchmarks rebounded from intraday lows as core CPI rose slightly more than expected and investors changed their bets for a quarter-percentage-point-cut by the Fed next week.

Investors on Wall Street will look toward the release of the August producer price index on Thursday, which is expected to show a rise of 0.2% in the headline as well as core inflation readings, according to economists polled by Reuters, compared to 0.1% and 0.0% previously.

—CNBC’s Zev Fima, Pia Singh and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.