EQUITIES: Asian Equities Mostly Higher, Nikkei Tests 40,000

Asian equities are mostly higher today, led by gains in Japanese stocks with the Nikkei briefly breaking back above 40,000. The moves follow a surge in  US equities overnight with the Nasdaq climbing 1.9% after Amazon & Meta hit new highs, while Broadcom jumped 6.5% after a report that the chipmaker was working with Apple on an AI deal. Locally, focus was on Australia's Employment numbers which showed a strong beat in Full time employment, with the unemployment rate falling to 3.9%, further hurting chances of a rate cut any time soon.

• South Korea President spoke earlier where he said he would fight to defend himself and accused the opposition of trying to paralyze parliament. There has been some volatility in the Korean equity market, with the KOSPI trading 1.10% higher prior to him speaking, the benchmark then largely pared those gains before trading back to 0.70% higher, Samsung the largest weighting in the Index has continued it underperformance vs other tech and semiconductor stocks, trading just 0.50% higher today.
• Japanese equities are benefitting from report that the BOJ is in no hurry to raise interest rates. The Nikkei briefly trading back above 40,000, while the TOPIX is 1.20% higher. Semiconductor stocks are the top performing today, with Tokyo Electron up 1.20%, while Advantest is up 4.50%.
• There has been little out of China over the past day, with equity market trading little changed. The CSI 300 is 0.15% higher, while overnight the Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index fell 0.75%, following a 4.30% drop the day prior as investors grow weary over a lack of further policy updates. Hong Kong equities are slightly higher, with the HSTech Index the best performing, up 0.50%, the HSI is 0.35% higher.
• Australian equities are slightly lower today following stronger-than-expected employment data. RBA-dated OIS cooled following the data, with the market now pricing in the first full cut in May. The ASX200 is trading 0.30% lower, with Industrials & Real Estate stocks the worst performing. The NZX50 is 0.60% lower after Fisher & Paykel fell 2.50%.