Asian Stocks Advance As Small Caps And Banks Gain On Wall Street

Stocks in Asia advanced in early trade following Wednesday's slump as Wall Street traders rotated money away from large technology stocks and into small companies.

Australian benchmark S&P ASX 200 was 82 points, or 1% higher at 8,367, while the South Korean Kospi was up 4 points, or 0.13%, at 2,613 as of 5:40 a.m. The gauge of US-listed Chinese stocks rose almost 1% Wednesday.

Stocks in China will be back in focus amid a briefing by the housing minister and key economic data due on Friday. The Chinese President urged officials to make efforts in the final quarter to achieve growth rate of about 5%.

The housing minister has called for a press briefing on Thursday, where traders anticipate further easing for the property sector. Meanwhile, the country's GDP print due Friday will likely see an expansion of 4.5% in the third quarter from a year ago, Bloomberg reported.

Meanwhile, the gauge of smaller firms in the US—Russell 2000—rose to the highest level in almost three years after large caps took a backseat technology shares saw selling.

The tech companies are wary after the semiconductor bellwether ASML suffered its worst day since 1998, booking only about half the orders analysts expected from chipmakers. The sentiment in the tech space was further dampened by concerns of capping sales of AI chips from US companies, which could potentially hurt the top line.

However, Morgan Stanley climbed 6.5%, the most in four years after it better-than-expected earnings results for the third quarter.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.47% and 0.28%, respectively, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.79%. The Russell 2000 surged 1.6%.

On the commodity front, crude oil prices saw an upside from potential supply risks as Israel stepped up air strikes and killed a senior Hezbollah commander. Brent crude was trading 0.58% higher at $74.65 a barrel as of 6:00 a.m. IST. West Texas Intermediate was up 0.61% at $70.82 a barrel.

Traders will watch out for the European Central Bank's policy rate decision on Thursday US retail sales, jobless claims, and industrial production is also due.