Key facts
- Asian shares mostly rose Thursday, led by tech gains in Japan and South Korea.
- Major chipmakers' stocks surged following positive earnings from U.S. companies Qualcomm and Micron Technology.
- Oil prices fell over $1, nearing pre-war levels.
- Qualcomm and Micron Technology raised revenue forecasts and saw shares jump.
- Nikkei 225 surged 4.1%, Kospi hit a new record, up 5.9%.
- Wall Street closed mixed Wednesday, with tech giants weighing on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
Asian shares were mostly higher Thursday, led by technology-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 fell more than $1, bringing them closer to where they were before the war with Iran started.
Qualcomm’s share price surged 12% in afterhours trading after the company announced it had raised its forecast for revenue this year to $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 nearly 16% in afterhours trading after it upgraded its forecast and exceeded analysts’ estimates.
In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index surged 4.1% to 71,995.59 as traders snapped up shares in technology companies. Chipmaker Tokyo Electron’s shares gained 7.1%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest’s shares soared 13.4%.
South Korea’s benchmark, the Kospi, hit a new record, surging 5.9% to 8,968.22. Samsung Electronics’s shares gained 5.4% and SK Hynix leaped 11.6%.
Elsewhere in Asia, gains were more modest. Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.8% and the Sensex in India was up 0.6%. The Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.4% to 4,125.76, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.4% to 23,090.27. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.5% to 8,768.20.
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% to 7,358.22. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10.4% to 51,848.90. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.4%, to 25,476.64. Microsoft lost 2.3% and Oracle slumped 4.6%. 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.