NEWS

Ups, doubles revenue forecast for key chips

International benchmark Brent crude gained 2.45% to $102.57 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate rose 2.51% to $95.85 per barrel as of 8:44 p.m. ET.

By CNBC

• March 17, 2026 at 3:58 AM

Ups, doubles revenue forecast for key chips Photo: CNBC

Asia-Pacific markets rose Tuesday as auto and tech stocks gained after Nvidia announced robust revenue forecast for its key chips, and partnerships with carmakers from the region.

Memory makers SK Hynix, which supplies memory chips to Nvidia, and Samsung Electronics, a decades-old partner of Nvidia, rose over 3% and 4%, respectively.

This comes after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he expects purchase orders between Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips to reach $1 trillion through 2027 at Nvidia's annual developer conference on Monday.

Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest chipmaker and manufacturer of Nvidia's advanced AI GPUs, rose 1%.

Investors also assessed Iran war developments, with U.S.

President Donald Trump looking to delay his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping by "a month or so" due to the Middle East conflict.

Trump was expected to travel to China at the end of March.

International benchmark Brent crude gained 2.45% to $102.57 per barrel, while the U.S.

West Texas Intermediate rose 2.51% to $95.85 per barrel as of 8:44 p.m.

ET.

Prices had dropped on Monday.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.27%.

Australia's central bank on Tuesday raised benchmark policy rates for a second straight time to 4.1%.

The 25 basis points hike was in line with expectations from analysts polled by Reuters, and comes as Australia's inflation stays above the central bank's upper limit of 3%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.75%, while the Topix jumped more than 1%.

South Korea's Kospi rose 2.94%, while the small-cap Kosdaq added 1.53%.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index rose 0.94%, while mainland CSI 300 rose 0.28%.

U.S.

stock futures were flat after the major averages bounced overnight in light of cooling oil prices.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 46 points, or 0.1%.

S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures declined nearly 0.2%.

Overnight in the U.S., stocks rose while oil prices pulled back as Wall Street tried to recover from another losing week, with investors monitoring the latest developments of the Iran war.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 387.94 points, or 0.83%, closing at 46,946.41.

The S&P 500 rose 1.01% to end at 6,699.38, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.22% and settled at 22,374.18.

—CNBC's Lim Hui Jie, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to the report.