The optimism showed up across the region. Indian shares rose in early trade, led by IT stocks on earnings hopes and by Reliance Industries as its unit Jio Platforms launched a $3.2 billion IPO. Beneath the calm headline, though, the market kept sorting winners from losers: Australian data centre operator NextDC lost nearly half of its market value after sharply cutting its revenue forecast and pausing future developments — another jolt of negative sentiment for global AI-related stocks.
Europe's banks offered a counterpoint to the volatility. Norway's DNB posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, with stronger lending volumes offsetting margin pressure from competition. Meanwhile commodity and bond markets told the same cautious story: Brent crude near $110, gold above $4,100 an ounce, and the US 10-year yield hovering just over 5%.
Why it matters
This rally matters less for its size than for its source: actual earnings rather than speculation about them. After weeks of swings driven by AI-spending anxiety, investors are finally getting hard numbers to judge whether the spending is paying off. The NextDC collapse is the other side of that coin — it shows how quickly the market is repricing anything AI-adjacent that can't back its growth story with forecasts. The practical read: this earnings season is not a victory lap, it is an audit. Companies with cash flows survive it; companies with narratives get marked down.
Source: Reuters — Asian stocks climb as strong earnings buoy Wall Street (October 20, 2026). Summary rewritten by VCTRIA.
