Major Asian equity indices started the week largely in positive territory, as strong quarterly earnings lent support to regional stocks and eased some of the fears surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) trading that had weighed on recent sessions. Taiwan joined a number of Asian countries prepared to intervene in markets to reduce volatility.

The MSCI Asia Pacific — the benchmark for Asian trading — advanced 1.76% after plunging nearly 4% in the previous session, its worst single day since April 2025. Taiwan’s Taiex surged around 5% on Monday (9), after the market regulator and the finance minister announced they would impose restrictions on short selling and launch a market stabilisation fund of approximately €13.61 billion.

Democratic victories in states considered key to AI infrastructure development had led investors to anticipate a brake on technology, particularly after the party secured the governorship of Texas. Those concerns drove the S&P 500 — the main US benchmark — to its worst week since April of last year, with $2.3 trillion wiped from the Nasdaq 100 on Thursday.

Monday brought a recovery, and not even the latest news surrounding Nvidia appeared to shake the renewed optimism among investors. The semiconductor manufacturer advanced 1% in pre-market trading, even after it emerged that the company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, had been linked to a woman identified as a Chinese spy.

“Asian markets are finding their footing this morning, with investors digesting the recovery in US tech and the latest news surrounding Nvidia’s Jensen Huang,” Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, told Bloomberg. “What’s really underpinning this firmer tone is the growing sense that Democratic policymakers may soften the hardline rhetoric on AI and data centres that we heard during the campaign,” he added.

In Europe, futures trading pointed to a negative open, with losses of around 0.15% anticipated. Unlike in the United States and Asia, European equities carry a relatively small weighting in the technology sector and are therefore typically more insulated from AI-driven volatility.

Among the main results by market, China’s Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite diverged, with the former falling 0.1% and the latter gaining 0.32%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced 2.33%, while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.81% and Australia’s ASX 200 edged up 0.1%.