Asian Stocks Climb on AI Demand; Oil Surges as Gulf Peace Talks Stall

Asian equities rallied Monday, propelled by explosive demand for artificial intelligence-related chips, while crude oil prices spiked on escalating Middle East tensions as Gulf peace negotiations stalled and the U.S. warned of renewed strikes on Iran. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.1% to a record high, South Korea's Kospi jumped 4.4% and MSCI's Asia-Pacific index ex-Japan gained 1.6%. Samsung Electronics soared nearly 10% after it began shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory chip. South Korea's exports hit a record $87.75 billion in May, surging at their fastest annual rate in over 40 years. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to deliver a keynote at Taiwan's Computex on Monday. Brent crude climbed 2.1% to $93.02 a barrel and U.S. crude added 2.6% to $89.61 after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. was ready to restart attacks on Iran if no deal was reached, while Israel pushed further into Lebanon. U.S. stock futures edged higher, with S&P 500 contracts up 0.3% and Nasdaq 0.5%. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 3 basis points to 4.470% amid bets the Fed may hike rates by year-end. Markets priced a 50-50 chance, with the May payrolls report due Friday forecast to show 85,000 job gains and unemployment steady at 4.3%.