Asian stocks rise as oil falls after Trump Iran remarks

Asian stock markets mostly rose on Friday as traders weighed concern about the artificial intelligence investment boom, while oil prices fell after US President Donald Trump said he had ruled out hitting Iran before the midterm elections.

The Financial Times reported that OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, expected $50 billion in annualised revenue this year, below a previously flagged $70 billion. Bloomberg later cited unnamed sources as saying the company expected to reach the original estimate.

The reports followed weeks of optimism around AI-related shares before the coming earnings season. The Nasdaq closed more than 1 percent lower in New York, with Nvidia down nearly 3 percent and Microsoft, AMD and Amazon also lower.

Asian trading recovered from early selling. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed up 1.8 percent at 24,211.35, Shanghai rose 0.1 percent and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 ended flat at 68,030.92 after clawing back morning losses. Sydney, Mumbai, Wellington, Bangkok, Manila and Jakarta also rose, while Seoul and Taipei were closed for holidays.

London, Paris and Frankfurt were also higher. Around 0810 GMT, London's FTSE 100 was up 0.8 percent at 10,522.58.

Chris Weston of Pepperstone said the different OpenAI revenue figures could reflect differences in measurement rather than a deterioration in the company's business, but that the headlines had been enough to prompt market repositioning.

Oil prices also fell. West Texas Intermediate was down 1.1 percent at $90.49 a barrel and Brent crude was down 1.1 percent at $103.14, after both contracts had earlier fallen by as much as 4 percent.

Trump said Washington was holding "productive discussions" with Tehran. His comments followed reports that the White House had asked the Pentagon to draw up plans for a possible attack before the November 3 vote.

Comments from Federal Reserve officials reinforced expectations that another US interest rate rise could come before the end of the year, though not necessarily this month. Fed governor Christopher Waller said more tightening was likely needed to bring prices under control, while St. Louis Fed chief Alberto Musalem pointed to increases over the next six to nine months.