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StreetAccount Summary - Asian Market Recap: Nikkei (0.30%), Hang Seng +2.52%, Shanghai Composite +0.43% as of 04:10 ET

Jun 02 ,2026

• Synopsis:

  • Asia equities ended on a positive note Tuesday. Many markets opened lower only to pare losses and end with modest gains or off their troughs. By their respective closes, mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and other Southeast Asia benchmarks were higher while Japan's main boards ended lower but well off their troughs. Australia was flat, India tracking higher after a poor start. US futures still slightly lower, Europe opened with solid gains. US dollar flat, yuan strengthening to four-year high, quiet elsewhere. Treasury and JGB yields lower, CGB yields slightly higher after record low PBOC OMO this morning. Precious metals rallied as oil prices faded overnight, base metals higher after President Trump lowered certain metal tariffs to address national security concerns. Cryptocurrencies lower.

  • Asia stocks continue to be driven by the AI tsunami with strong gains today in China's Hong Kong-listed AI and cloud stocks, and the semiconductor block of companies in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Unrelenting gains supported in past two days by announcements from Computex while Tencent (700.HK), Alibaba (9988.HK), Cambricon (688256.CH), and BYD (1211.HK) were among the IT, internet or AI-related stocks that supported a significant rally in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The tech sector again brushed off any concerns over the middle east conflict despite negotiations stalling over the past few days. Brent crude hovered at $94/bl, WTI at $91/bl while precious metals reversed yesterday's declines and sovereign yields eased a little, signaling risk assets uncertain where to go this week.

  • In regional developments Tuesday, South Korea headline and core inflation prints were higher than expected, fueling expectations of a BOK rate hike next month. The PBOC cut its daily open market operations to effectively soak up excess liquidity and dampen the rally in CGBs; it also set a stronger yuan fixing this morning, pushing the currency to an almost four-year high against a basket of currencies. RBA board member Harper said persistent inflation remains a significant issue with market-implied inflation expectations on the rise. Indonesia exports grew 22% on strong oil & gas shipments while imports also surged; the country's inflation for May also rose to above 3.0%.

  • Tencent (700.HK) is close to launching an embedded AI agent for WeChat although early estimates suggest a very costly rollout, according to a FT report. Meituan (3690.HK) reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss but flagged a deceleration in order growth. BYD (1211.HK) vehicle sales rose for the first time in nine months while Great Wall Motor (2333.HK) and Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) saw declines. Lotte Energy Materials (020150.KS) is to supply AI circuit foil for Nvidia's next-generation GPU this month. Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) unveiled its next-gen HBM5 for the first time.

• Digest:

  • Trump says Iran talks continuing after Tehran reportedly halted negotiations over Lebanon:

    • More headline noise surrounding US-Iran negotiations after President Trump said talks continuing at a rapid pace (Bloomberg). Follows reports Iran suspended talks and threatened to disrupt shipping in Red Sea in response to Israel's ground offensive in Lebanon. Lebanon later announced partial ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah following Trump's phone call to PM Netanyahu and announcement Israel agreed to halt strikes on Beirut (Reuters).However, Netanyahu vowed to continue hitting Beirut if Hezbollah kept firing on Israel and stressed IDF's campaign in southern Lebanon will continue. Unclear whether Iran mollified by latest developments.

    • Trump gave conflicting opinions on state of talks with Iran, saying he believes deal could be reached over next week (ABC News) while earlier expressing disinterest in continuing slow negotiations (CNBC). Follows weekend reports Trump sent revised proposal back to Iran, which reportedly included tougher language on Strait of Hormuz and clearer commitments from Iran on its nuclear concessions. US and Iran also engaged in another skirmish in Strait of Hormuz. Crude surged amid the apparent setback in negotiations though a settlement between US and Iran is still market's baseline assumption, even though path likely to remain bumpy.

  • Nvidia's Huang hails Marvell as next $1T company, Samsung unveils HBM5 at Computex:

    • Computex continued in Taipei on Tuesday with Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang drawing more interest after appearing alongside Marvell Technology (MRVL) CEO Matt Murphy. Discussions turned to connectivity as the next AI bottleneck with Huang noting Marvell the undisputed leader in this space and proclaiming it as the next $1T company (vs current market cap of $192B) (Digi Times). In March Nvidia announced it was investing $2B in Marvell, as part of broad agreement involving optical interconnect solutions and silicon photonics technology (Bloomberg).

    • Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) unveiled mockup of its next-gen HBM5 chip, which features new HPB thermal solution to improve heat dissipation and operational stability (Korea Herald). HBM5 will also be based on 2nm die to increase efficiency. Previous reports noted HBM5 in development (Business Korea). Comes after Samsung said it had begun shipping samples of HBM4E, more than 20% faster than HBM4 that began shipping only three months earlier (Reuters).

    • Huang's presence at Computex has generated more hype around physical AI with Doosan Robotics (454910.KS) building on Monday's surge (now +50% wtd). Huang met with SK Group's chairman on Monday to discuss future AI cooperation and is expected to discuss robotics/physical AI when he meets heads of other South Korean conglomerates beginning Thursday (Yonhap).

  • China's tech platforms and robotics firms generating attention:

    • China tech companies making news with major platforms driving Hang Seng tech rally on Tuesday. FT sources said Tencent (700.HK) nearing launch of embedded AI agent for WeChat with prototype testing underway. Plans to begin compliance process as soon as June for an as-yet unconfirmed public launch date. Company's move to embed AI agent into WeChat has drawn a lot of interest with promise of leveraging its program ecosystem. Optimism overshadowing concerns that rollout will prove very costly amid high compute demand.

    • Meituan (3690.HK) led China's online commerce providers after reporting a narrower-than-expected loss, which offered signs market stabilizing following long stretch of intense competition that has weighed heavily on industry profitability and margins. Key rivals JD.com (9618.HK) and Alibaba (9988.HK) rallied alongside.

    • Press also highlighting potential of China's robotics industry after Unitree received approval for listing in Shanghai. On Monday Nvidia announced it selected Unitree to develop humanoid robots based on Nvidia systems for use by academic researchers. Unitree's listing could set tone for other China robotics firms to list with at least 46 Hong Kong companies in pipeline (Bloomberg).

  • PBOC cuts daily cash operation to record low amid CGB yield decline:

    • Bloomberg noted PBOC cut its daily open-market operation to record low Tuesday to absorb excess cash, cap sovereign bond rally. It lent CNY200M ($29.6M) in 7D reverse repos to barely offset maturities; resulted in CNY248.8B net liquidity withdrawal. Said measure latest step by PBOC to soak up excess funds amid slowdown in lending; this resulted in liquidity glut which has pushed borrowing costs to multi-year lows, fueled bond rally. 10Y CGB yield declined sharply to 1.7% from above 1.85% at beginning of May; article cited analyst saying draining excess liquidity suggests PBOC does not want rapid decline in yields.

    • Separate Bloomberg article noted yuan strengthened to highest in almost four years against basket of trading-partner currencies. Said demand for yuan increased since start of middle east conflict as diversified energy mix, relatively limited direct exposure to the Middle East boosted demand for China assets. Analysts said PBOC's continued strong fixing shows Beijing is comfortable with current strength. Rally could continue amid elevated Treasury yields, strong dollar but could be capped by Beijing's forex stability pledge, weaker fixing, possible increase in RRR of foreign currency deposits.

  • Japan Q1 GDP seen revised down after MOF capex data:

    • Narrow Nikkei survey (n=10) showed Q1 GDP growth estimated to be revised down to 1.5% q/q annualized from the first preliminary estimates of 2.1%. Forecasts were in the range of 1.0%~1.9%. Capex expected to swing to a 0.9% q/q decline from current 0.3% growth following the surprising weakness in yesterday's MOF Corporate Survey data. This would foil the start of a growth streak, reversing a 1.4% increase in Q4, posing a setback to the investment narrative. Article cited thoughts that Middle East uncertainties prompted delays to fixed investments scheduled for implementation around FY-end. Furthermore, other views that petrochemical supply shortages will further restrict investments from Q2 and beyond. Yet, sentiment remains upbeat amid strong demand for labor-saving solutions and AI while historically high level of corporate profits provide resilience against shocks. Overall, revisions would leave GDP largely in line with JCER original consensus of 1.56%. Going forward, quarterly momentum was always seen moderating towards the trend pace of just below 1%. Trough seen over Q2 and Q3 at ~0.5% before picking back up thereafter. Not much color on the contours beyond temporary Middle East impacts. Attention apt to focus on inflation as a key conduit as consensus sees core CPI inflation back above 2% by Q3, renewing a threat to real household incomes. Trade data also in focus as a barometer of cyclical momentum and any meaningful deterioration in terms of trade.

  • Notable Gainers:

    • +10.5% 700.HK (Tencent Holdings): reportedly nearing launch of embedded AI agent for WeChat

    • +9.3% 3690.HK (Meituan): reports Q1 adjusted net income (CNY4.97B) vs FactSet (CNY6.59B)

    • +7.0% 3099.JP (Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings): reports preliminary May domestic department store sales +8.6% y/y

    • +6.6% 1211.HK (BYD Co.): reports May vehicle production volume 380,549 units vs year-ago 349,824 units

    • +3.5% 2801.JP (Kikkoman): to raise prices on 291 products by up to 22% from September

    • +3.2% 9627.JP (Ain Holdings): raises FY headline guidance

  • Notable Decliners:

    • -11.0% 2593.JP (ITO EN): reports FY results; revenue misses FactSet estimates; headline guidance also below estimates

    • -6.5% 2181.JP (PERSOL Holdings): Japan's Fair Trade Commission reportedly conducts on-site inspections of five firms including PERSOL Holding's PERSOL Tempstaff

    • -2.8% 005380.KS (Hyundai Motor): reports May global sales 325,473 units vs year-ago 352,620 units

    • -0.4% 2333.HK (Great Wall Motor): reports May sales 100,399 units, (1.8%) y/y

• Data:

  • Economic:

    • Australia

      • Q1 current account balance ($A27.1B) vs consensus ($A23.4B) and (A$21.1B) in Q4

        • Net exports to subtract (0.8) ppt from Q1 GDP vs (0.1) ppt subtraction from Q4 GDP

      • Q1 business inventories +0.5% vs consensus 0.0% and (0.1%) in Q4

        • Q1 company profits (1.3%) vs consensus +0.5% and +5.8% in Q4

      • April building approvals (3.4%) m/m vs consensus (1.6%) and (10.5%) in March

    • South Korea

      • May CPI +3.1% y/y vs consensus +3.0% and +2.6% in prior month

        • CPI ex-food & energy +2.5% vs +2.2% in prior month

  • Markets:

    • Nikkei: (200.09) or (0.30%) to 66734.24

    • Hang Seng: 640.14 or +2.52% to 26038.32

    • Shanghai Composite: 17.36 or +0.43% to 4075.10

    • Shenzhen Composite: 21.38 or +0.77% to 2805.21

    • ASX200: (5.00) or (0.06%) to 8724.40

    • KOSPI: 13.11 or +0.15% to 8801.49

    • SENSEX: 387.58 or +0.52% to 74654.92

  • Currencies:

    • $-¥: +0.02 or +0.02% to 159.6830

    • $-KRW: +2.61 or +0.17% to 1516.9000

    • A$-$: +0.00 or +0.32% to 0.7184

    • $-INR: (0.03) or (0.03%) to 95.1929

    • $-CNY: (0.00) or (0.05%) to 6.7625