Gold, which benefits from lower US interest rates, hit a fresh record above US$4,388, while silver also struck a new peak.
The precious metals, which are go-to assets in times of crisis, also benefited from geopolitical worries as Washington steps up its oil blockade against Venezuela and after Ukraine hit a tanker from Russia’s shadow fleet in the Mediterranean.
Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management said: “Asian equity markets are stepping onto the floor with a constructive bias, taking their cue from Friday’s solid rebound in US stocks and the growing belief that the final stretch of the year still belongs to the bulls”.
The equity gains tracked a surge on Wall Street led by the Nasdaq as technology giants following a bumper earnings report from chip giant Micron Technology that reinvigorated the AI trade.
That came on top of news that Oracle will take a 15 per cent stake in a TikTok joint venture that will allow the social media company to maintain operations in the United States.
The tech bounce came after a bout of selling fuelled by concerns that valuations had been stretched and questions were being asked about the vast sums invested in artificial intelligence that some warn could take time to see returns.
Forex traders are keeping tabs on Tokyo after Japan’s top currency official said he was concerned about the yen’s recent weakness, which came after the central bank hiked interest rates to a 30-year high on Friday.
“We’re seeing one-directional, sudden moves especially after last week’s monetary policy meeting, so I’m deeply concerned,” Atsushi Mimura said on Monday.
“We’d like to take appropriate responses against excessive moves.”
The comments stoked speculation that officials could intervene in currency markets to support the yen, which fell more than 1 per cent against the dollar on Friday after bank boss Kazuo Ueda chose not to signal more increases early in the new year.
