South Korea auto stocks rise after U.S. Commerce Secretary confirms tariffs lowered to 15%

Shares of South Korean auto companies rose Tuesday after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick confirmed that lower U.S. auto tariffs of 15% on South Korea would retrospectively come into effect, starting Nov. 1.

“We are also removing tariffs on airplane parts and will ‘un-stack’ Korea’s reciprocal rate to match Japan and the EU,” Lutnick said, according to an X post by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Carmakers Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp rose 4.52% and 4.19%, respectively.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.9% to close at 3,994.93, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.65% to 928.42.

South Korea’s headline inflation in November rose 2.4% year on year, according to government data Tuesday, exceeding the 2.35% rise expected by economists in a Reuters poll. Core inflation, which strips out prices of fresh food and energy, rose 2% from a year earlier.

The latest figure is unchanged from October’s inflation rate, supporting the case for the central bank to keep interest rates on hold. The Bank of Korea had kept rates unchanged at 2.5% for a fourth straight meeting last Thursday.

Benchmark indexes in the broader Asia-Pacific region were mixed Tuesday.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed flat at 49,303.45. The Topix index also closed slightly above the flatline at 3,341.06.

Among the top movers on the Nikkei 225 was industrial robot maker Fanuc, which was up 6.51% after announcing a partnership with Nvidia to improve its products with AI. NGK Insulators, which manufactures diesel particulate filters, advanced 7.2%, and electrical equipment company Fujikura added 1.56%.

Meanwhile, shares of SoftBank fell more than 5% in their third straight session of losses, as AI valuation concerns continued to mount. The tech conglomerate’s CEO, Masayoshi Sun, said during the FII Priority Asia forum on Monday that he “was crying to sell Nvidia shares” to fund his company’s investments in AI, which includes OpenAI.

“I wish to have unlimited money… I just had more need for money to invest into OpenAI, into our opportunities,” he said.

Yields on the 10-year Japanese Government Bonds rose to 1.88%, the highest since June 2008, amid growing speculation of an interest rate hike by the central bank as soon as this month.

Meanwhile, yield on the 20-year JGB rose to 2.915%, the highest since 1999, and yield on the 30-year JGB rose to an all-time high of 3.411%.

Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 rose 0.17% to end at 8,579.7.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.18%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 declined 0.48%. Shares of Alibaba Group climbed nearly 3% in Hong Kong, rising for a third straight session, after the tech giant launched its Quark artificial intelligence glasses in China on Nov. 27.

India’s Nifty 50 was 0.44% lower, and the BSE Sensex index fell 0.42%. Bajaj Housing Finance was among the top losers on the Nifty 50, falling 5% after its parent company Bajaj Finance said it was offloading up to 2% of its stake in the subsidiary.

U.S. equity futures were little changed during Asian hours after all three key benchmarks snapped five-day gain streaks as a crypto sell-off dented market sentiment.

The S&P 500 lost 0.53% to end at 6,812.63, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.38% to finish at 23,275.92. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back by 427.09 points, or 0.9%, to settle at 47,289.33.

Overnight, bitcoin plunged around 6% to trade below $86,000, denting investor sentiment and pressuring the broader stock market. It was trading at $87,094.03, as of 3:02 p.m. Tuesday Singapore time (2:02 a.m. ET Tuesday). The digital currency has struggled to stay above $90,000 since it fell below that level late last month for the first time since April.

Other crypto-related stocks, including Coinbase and Strategy, also fell in Monday’s session in U.S. trading hours.

Shares of artificial intelligence-related names, Broadcom and Super Micro Computer lost more than 4% and 1%, respectively, indicating more profit-taking in the sector.

— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.