Hitachi shares soar over 10% on partnership with OpenAI

Shares of Japanese conglomerate Hitachi closed over 10% higher Friday after it announced late Thursday a partnership with OpenAI to build artificial-intelligence infrastructure and data centers globally.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 1.85% to close at 45,769.50, while the Topix ended 1.35% at 3,129.17

The country’s unemployment rate rose to 2.6% in August, government data showed Friday, higher than the 2.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters and the 2.3% rate in the prior month.

The S&P Global Japan services purchasing managers’ index climbed to 53.3 in September from 53.1 in August, driven by stronger domestic demand amid falling new export business.

“While services companies recorded another month of solid growth, manufacturers reported a steeper decline in output amid weak sales. As a result, the private sector as a whole expanded at the slowest rate since May,” said Annabel Fiddes, economics associate director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 rose 0.46% to 8,987.4.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index retreated 0.54% to 27,140.92, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 0.90% to 6,622.85

India’s Nifty 50 as well as the BSE Sensex were trading flat as of 2:30 p.m. local time.

Chinese and South Korean markets were closed for holidays.

U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours after the three leading U.S. indexes closed at record highs as investors shrugged off the U.S. government shutdown.

Investors are waiting to see how long the shutdown will last to assess the gravity of its economic repercussions. Historically, government shutdowns in the U.S. have not been market-moving events.

Overnight, the S&P 500 inched up 0.06%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more than 78 points, or nearly 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite rose about 0.4%, powered by a 0.9% gain in Nvidia that propelled the chipmaker to an all-time high. Other chipmakers also gained ground, with Intel and AMD each rising more than 3%.

The U.S. government shutdown has led the Labor Department to pause all activity, including the scheduled Friday release of the September nonfarm payrolls report. While that will reduce the amount of economic data the Federal Reserve can factor into its interest rate decision at its October meeting, it also removes a factor that could lend pressure to stocks.