Sawt Falasteen - Asian stocks rise as tech bounces from rout, eyes on Warsh

Seoul and Tokyo enjoyed healthy gains in early exchanges, with chipmakers SK hynix and Kioxia among the best performers -- having been pummelled Thursday as investors bailed out of the once-dominant AI sector.

The selling had been fuelled by forecast-beating US inflation data that ramped up bets on more Fed interest rate hikes, as well as concerns about the financial health of data centre operator CoreWeave owing to its huge debt pile.

The New Jersey firm -- which has borrowed heavily to finance hefty purchases of pricey semiconductor chips from Nvidia -- tanked 15.5 percent Wednesday as yields on some of its bonds soared, reflecting heightened angst over its future.

That added to concerns about the whole AI-tech complex, but Nvidia chief Jensen Huang on Thursday lifted spirits by defending the company and its health.

"CoreWeave's strength is improving every day," he told Bloomberg. "I'm optimistic. Their cost of capital is actually decreasing."

CoreWeave's shares climbed almost six percent.

Huang's "defence of CoreWeave's financial position was enough to pull the NeoCloud complex off the floor, drag AI equities higher and give the broader market something resembling a pulse", wrote SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes.

"One moment the market was pricing the possibility that the AI financing machine had started eating its own tail, the next it was listening to the high priest of the boom explain that the patient was getting stronger.

"AI Jesus had entered the trading room and, for a while at least, the machines found religion again."

Seoul jumped more than two percent and Tokyo around 1.8 percent, though they slumped 7.6 percent and 4.9 percent respectively Thursday.

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei and Manila were also well up.

Traders are now awaiting comments at the International Monetary Fund's gathering in Bangkok, with hopes that he will give some insight into policymakers' thinking following this week's inflation-busting consumer inflation data.

The reading was the highest in five months and saw investors push up bets on a second-successive rate hike this month.

- Key figures at around 0200 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.8 percent to 65,563.62

Seoul - Kospi: UP 2.7 percent to 5,706.57

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.1 percent to 24,325.19

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.6 percent to 3,733.55

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $97.71 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $105.74 per barrel

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1210 from $1.1213 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3272 from $1.3274

Dollar/yen: UP at 158.14 yen from 158.12 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 84.48 pence from 84.47 pence

New York - Dow: UP 1.1 percent at 52,177.69 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 1.1 percent at 10,840.35 (close)

B.AbuZeid--SF-PST