HONG KONG — Asian markets and US equity futures made a steady start on Monday, November 9, wobbling into positive territory after a wild week where doubts about demand for computer chips sent tech-heavy markets in Asia into some of their steepest falls in years. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8 percent after sliding 4.6 percent last week. Japan's Nikkei index added 2.5 percent while Korean shares made small gains. Taiwan's benchmark rose about 2.5 percent after notching its heaviest weekly drop for two decades last week, when fears about AI profitability and infrastructure demand turned into a rout following wins by Democrats at the US midterm polls. US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were a touch higher.

Source: Reuters, Nov 9 2026

The steadier open followed Friday's rally on Wall Street, which ended a chaotic week of heavy AI-related selling and helped calm nerves. Global stocks had already been on shaky ground in recent weeks, Reuters reported, with the AI trade crumbling in the face of rising interest rates — until the US midterm results unleashed deeper worries about increased regulation of AI and data centres. Later snapshots of the same Monday session told the same story in slightly different numbers: Dow Jones reported Taiwan's Taiex up 3.1 percent after tumbling more than 4 percent on Friday, the Nikkei up 1.3 percent, South Korea's Kospi 0.4 percent higher and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 1.0 percent, while markets in Singapore and Malaysia were closed for a holiday.

Source: Reuters, Nov 9 2026; Dow Jones via Morningstar, Nov 8 2026

'Far from out of the woods'

'The markets are far from being out of the woods yet,' said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com. 'Following last week's midterm elections that have led to increased regulatory risk and an overall underwhelming earnings season that's seen Magnificent Seven companies miss earnings expectations, the momentum remains skewed to the downside,' he added. The tests come quickly: earnings this week from tech companies including CoreWeave, Applied Materials and Cisco Systems will put the profitability of AI ambitions to the test amid the massive costs of the build-out, and a company-led investigation by industry bellwether Nvidia into its CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with an alleged Chinese spy could also draw volatility, Reuters said.

Source: Reuters, Nov 9 2026

The Nvidia investigation is the week's other live market risk: Awaaz Punjab reported on Sunday that Nvidia's board has opened a probe into chief executive Jensen Huang over alleged foreign-intelligence links — a story hanging over the very chip stocks that led last week's rout. Read: Nvidia board probe into Jensen Huang — what we know

Rate expectations are the other weight on the market. A blowout US jobs report on Friday showed employers added 165,000 jobs last month, more than twice economists' expectations, bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December; a US CPI reading due on Tuesday could further cement expectations for a hike next month. Market expectations for an increase of at least 25 basis points at the Fed's December meeting moved up to nearly 80 percent after the report, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, and New York Fed President John Williams said US growth has remained remarkably resilient but inflation is too high and must be brought back to 2 percent. The dollar notched its biggest single-day gain in five months and the dollar index last traded at 102.2; the euro was little changed at $1.1148 and the yen was 0.2 percent stronger at 158.215 per dollar. (A 25-basis-point hike is a 0.25 percentage point rise — yaani, a quarter of one percent.)

Source: Reuters, Nov 9 2026

Oil moved the other way. Brent crude fell to $97.49 a barrel after US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was highly unlikely to order fresh attacks on Iran as long as talks to end the conflict progress; front-month US West Texas Intermediate was down 0.4 percent at $90.42 a barrel in the Dow Jones snapshot. The fall extends oil's steepest weekly decline since April 2020 — more than 16 percent last week — as the diplomatic track, including this week's US–Russia–Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi, pulled the war premium out of prices even while attacks across West Asia continued. 'The fact that supply and demand dynamics in the oil market have not materially changed in the past week means that the fall in oil prices largely reflects the risk premium narrowing,' said Hamad Hussain, economist at Capital Economics, in comments carried by Dow Jones.

Source: Reuters, Nov 9 2026; Dow Jones via Morningstar, Nov 8 2026

Oil's Monday slide was already moving before Asia's equity open: Awaaz Punjab reported overnight that Brent had opened the week at $97.67 as Trump's 'highly unlikely' comment and the Iran talks weighed on prices. Read: Oil falls at Monday open — Brent at $97.67 on Trump–Iran talks

What happens next

Three tests decide whether Monday's calm lasts: US inflation data on Tuesday, which could lock in or undo the December rate-hike bet; this week's tech earnings — CoreWeave, Applied Materials and Cisco — which will be read as a verdict on whether AI spending can pay for itself; and the Abu Dhabi talks on Tuesday and Wednesday, where Russian and Ukrainian delegations meet US mediators with European participation. For Gulf and Punjabi-diaspora readers, the oil leg matters most at the fuel pump and in remittance-heavy Gulf economies: every week Brent stays under $100 takes pressure off diesel and petrol prices across India and the Gulf — but the same weekend that produced the price fall also produced continued strikes across West Asia, which is why traders are treating the calm as nervous, not settled.