Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.8% to close at 39958.87 amid risk-on sentiment. "Equities worldwide continued to ride on the wave of U.S.' AI investment announcement, as well as blowout earnings from streaming giant Netflix,

Gold price sticks to positive bias for the third successive day on Wednesday and trades near its highest level since November 1 above $2,750. The uncertainty around US President Donald Trump's trade policies turns out to be a key factor that continues to drive haven flows towards the precious metal.

Netflix, Oracle and other tech stocks lifted U.S. indexes as their profits pile higher and excitement builds around AI's moneymaking prospects.