Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 for the first time, while Asian shares were mostly higher Thursday, taking their cues from another Wall Street record rally.
US futures edged lower while oil prices crept up.
Bitcoin has been nudging toward $100,000 and it surged late Wednesday, US time, after President-elect Donald Trump chose crypto advocate Paul Atkins as his nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cryptocurrency has climbed dramatically from $69,374 on Nov. 5, Election Day. As of 11 p.m. ET, it was up 4.7% at $103,308.27, The Associated Press reported.
South Korea's Kospi fell 0.6% to 2,449.74, extending a 1.4% decline the day before as President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night. He revoked the martial law declaration six hours later.
Yoon accepted his defense minister's resignation Thursday as opposition parties moved to impeach both of them. The main opposition Democratic Party and other small opposition parties submitted a joint motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday over his martial law declaration.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.3% to 39,406.04, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2% to 8,474.90. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1.0% to 19,541.09. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.3% to 3,374.91.
Taiwan's Taiex gained nearly 0.1%, while the Sensex in India was down 0.1%.
“As the dust settles and a fragile calm returns to the Korean markets, Asia braces for a bouncy Thursday. The mood is buoyed further by a fresh wave of record highs on Wall Street,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a commentary.
On Wednesday, shares got a boost from upbeat talk by tech companies about the artificial-intelligence boom.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to 6,086.49, adding to what’s set to be one of its best years of the millennium. It was the 56th time the index has hit an all-time high this year after climbing in 11 of the last 12 days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 45,014.04, while the Nasdaq composite added 1.3% to its own record, closing at 19,735.12.
Salesforce jumped 11%, helping pull the market higher after delivering stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit fell just short.
CEO Mark Benioff highlighted the company’s artificial-intelligence offering for customers, saying “the rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale.”
All the optimistic talk helped Nvidia, the company whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, rally 3.5%. It was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 by far.
Retailers overall have offered mixed signals about how resilient US shoppers can remain. Their spending has been one of the main reasons the US economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market.
This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the US government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month.
Expectations are brewing that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks. The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market.
The central bank had appeared set to continue cutting rates into next year, but the election of Donald Trump has scrambled Wall Street’s expectations somewhat. Trump’s preference for higher tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation, which could alter the Fed’s plans.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank can afford to cut rates cautiously because inflation has slowed from its peak two years ago and the economy remains sturdy.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18% from 4.23% late Tuesday.
In other dealings early Thursday, benchmark US crude added 1 cent to $68.55 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was unchanged at $72.31 a barrel.
In currency trading, the US dollar fell to 149.90 Japanese yen from 150.62 yen. The euro cost $1.0531, inching up from $1.0510.
