BANGKOK — World shares were mostly higher Thursday, led by tech-driven gains in Japan and South Korea as major computer chipmakers’ stocks surged following upbeat earnings reports from U.S. giants like Qualcomm and Micron Technology.
Oil prices slipped closer to where they were before the war with Iran began.
Qualcomm’s share price surged 11.5 per cent in pre-market trading after the company announced it had raised its forecast for revenue this year to US$40 billion from $22 billion. It also announced a new computer chip for data centers called Dragonfly C1000 CPU that Meta plans to use.
Micron Technology’s shares jumped 17 per cent in premarket trading after it upgraded its forecast and exceeded analysts’ estimates.
The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.8 per cent, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 per cent.
Germany’s DAX advanced 0.7 per cent to 24,904.98. The CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.5 per cent to 8,429.37 and Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.3 per cent to 10,495.81.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index surged 4.6 per cent to a record close of 72,366.34 as traders snapped up shares in technology companies. Chipmaker Tokyo Electron’s shares gained 7.8 per cent, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest’s shares soared 15 per cent.
South Korea’s benchmark, the Kospi, hit a new record, surging 5.4 per cent to 8,930.30 after briefly topping 9,000. Samsung Electronics’ shares gained 5.3 per cent and SK Hynix leaped 13 per cent.
Elsewhere in Asia, gains were more modest.
Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.5 per cent and the Sensex in India was up 0.7 per cent.
The Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.2 per cent to 4,120.28, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.4 per cent to 23,076.91.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.7 per cent to 8,748.70.
On Wednesday, stocks wavered to a mixed close on Wall Street as losses for several tech giants including Microsoft weighed on the market. The S&P 500 fell 0.1 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is less weighted with tech stocks, rose 10.4 per cent.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.4 per cent.
Microsoft lost 2.3 per cent and Oracle slumped 4.6 per cent.
Many large tech companies have been behind Wall Street’s record-setting run throughout the year, but analysts have warned their valuations may have become stretched.
Google’s parent company Alphabet slipped 0.2 per cent. The company is replacing Verizon in the Dow on Monday. Its inclusion in the S&P 500 means more to investors, however, because 401(k) accounts are much more likely to include an S&P 500 index fund than anything tied to the Dow.
Alphabet will become the fifth Magnificent 7 tech company to join the Dow. The others are Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia.
Oil companies had some of the biggest losses as prices fell while the U.S. and Iran negotiate a possible end to their war. Exxon Mobil fell 2 per cent and Chevron lost 2.6 per cent. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.8 per cent to $73.87 a barrel. It has been trading below $80 in recent days but is still above the roughly $70 per barrel it was trading at in late February before the war began.
U.S. crude prices fell 3.9 per cent to $70.34 a barrel.
Early Thursday, Brent was down 1.2 per cent at $72.97 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude lost 1.2 per cent to $69.51 a barrel.
Some of the bigger winners on Wall Street included homebuilders following approval of legislation beneficial to the industry. KB Home surged 16.7 per cent and D.R. Horton jumped 6.7 per cent.
The Federal Reserve will get an update on inflation later Thursday, when its preferred measure for prices is released. Economists expect the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, to show that prices rose 4.1 per cent in May. That would be the highest level in three years.
Inflation has been rising as tariffs raise costs for many goods. It worsened as the war pushed energy and shipping prices higher and that impact is expected to linger even as oil and gasoline prices fall.
In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 161.83 Japanese yen from 161.79 yen. The euro fell to $1.1354 from $1.1359.
Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press
