Despite Nvidia's enthusiasm, Asian stocks were restrained due to rate jitters

Asian markets were mixed in the overnight trade, with Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark reaching a new high and advances in the technology sector offset by ongoing concerns about high U.S. interest rates. These gains came after encouraging signals from AI darling Nvidia.

Wall Street led regional stocks weakly, as the Federal Reserve's late-January meeting minutes revealed the bank was not in a rush to start lowering interest rates. Numerous Fed representatives have expressed the same opinion in different speeches.

However, NVIDIA gained as much as 10% in aftermarket trading as the chipmaker predicted higher-than-expected sales in the upcoming quarter and its quarterly earnings above expectations.

Gains in Nvidia impacted Asian chip markets because the company's excellent performance and outlook indicated that demand for artificial intelligence research would increase.

Tech stocks in general climbed as well. The British chip design company Arm Holdings, which is significantly exposed to the AI boom, had an aftermarket bounce, while SoftBank Group, a major player in the Japanese tech investment space, jumped 4.6%.

Following statistics showing a fall in the manufacturing and services sector activity in Japan in February due to ongoing pressure from high inflation and poor demand, the Nikkei pared back some of its intraday gains.

However, it's also generally anticipated that a weaker economy will postpone the Bank of Japan's intentions to start hiking interest rates. One of the main forces for the recent surge in Japanese stocks was an extremely dovish BOJ.

Other Asian equities traded generally lower as the possibility of higher-for-longer U.S. rates and a slowing Chinese recovery dampened risk appetite.

Key Events Today:

• Eurozone & UK PMIs between 09:00-09:30 GMT
• Eurozone CPI Data at 10:00 GMT
• US Initial Jobless Claims at 13:30 GMT
• US PMIs at 14:45 GMT

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)