Sawt Falasteen - Most Asian markets rebound as Hong Kong tech rally resumes

Traders brushed off another disappointing day on Wall Street following more data showing consumers in the world's top economy were losing confidence.

New York's main indexes have struggled this year as the long-running US tech surge has hit the buffers after Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled its bombshell chatbot last month, upending the AI scramble.

Hong Kong climbed more than two percent and continues to be the regional standout thanks to a race to snap up long-neglected tech names thanks to DeepSeek.

It has also been helped by Beijing's moves to bring the firms in from the cold after years of government crackdowns on the industry.

E-commerce heavyweight Alibaba was again at the forefront of the advances, rallying nearly five percent, with rival JD.com up around seven percent, Tencent more than two percent higher and Netease 3.6 percent up.

Investors are rushing to get back into the stocks, having offloaded them this week in response to news that US President Donald Trump had signed a memo over the weekend calling for curbs on Chinese investments in industries including technology, critical infrastructure, healthcare and energy.

The move is aimed at promoting foreign investment in the United States, while protecting national security interests "particularly from threats posed by foreign adversaries" like China, the White House said.

There were also gains in Shanghai, Seoul, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta.

Sydney, Singapore and Taipei fell.

Tokyo was weighed by a stronger yen amid expectations that the Bank of Japan would continue hiking interest rates this year, while the currency also benefitted from a pick up in US rate cut bets.

Expectations for Federal Reserve reductions were boosted by a Conference Board survey showing US consumer confidence in February saw its largest monthly decline since August 2021.

The reading came on the heels of other lacklustre US reports including on service sector activity, jobs and inflation.

Rate-cut talk has grown as optimism over the US economy wanes and investors worry that Trump's tariffs drive and plans to slash taxes, regulations and immigration will reignite consumer prices.

Focus is now on the release of the core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed's preferred inflation metric, which could give a fresh idea about the outlook for US rates.

The Dow on Wall Street rose but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq retreated as tech giants struggled amid concerns over their high valuations and their huge spending on AI development.

Earnings from market heavyweight Nvidia on Thursday will be closely watched for an insight into its AI chip sales.

"The main focus though is probably what CEO Jensen Huang says about the state of the chip sector, where AI is going, what the DeepSeek competition means and any impact from tariffs," said Neil Wilson, an analyst at TipRanks trading group.

- Key figures around 0230 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.1 percent at 37,814.04 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 2.2 percent at 23,542.77

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,361.54

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0514 from $1.0517 on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2663 from $1.2668

Dollar/yen: UP at 149.29 from 149.00 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 83.03 pence from 83.00 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $69.17 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $73.25 per barrel

New York - Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 43,621.16 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 8,668.67 (close)

R.Halabi--SF-PST