NEW YORK – US stocks rebounded behind strong gains in tech shares ahead of key US jobs data, while the yen surged against the dollar, weighing on Japanese shares.
Artificial intelligence players Google and AMD both bounced following fresh announcements that underscored the market’s appetite for the technology.
AMD surged nearly 10 percent after presenting its newest chip, the MI300, which is being positioned as a rival to a much-praised Nvidia product.
Google parent Alphabet won 5.3 percent as it demonstrated its new Gemini artificial intelligence model that the company said could outperform human experts in several areas of problem-solving, math, physics, history, law, medicine and ethics.
“This is incredible momentum, and yet, we’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible,” Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement.
“This new era of models represents one of the biggest science and engineering efforts we’ve undertaken as a company.”
The Nasdaq led major US indices, gaining 1.4 percent.
Most other Asian markets ended lower, and Europe’s main exchanges also dipped.
