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Japan’s Nikkei 225 index topped 68,000 for the first time on Wednesday after U.S. stocks pushed further into record territory.
The dollar briefly surpassed 160 Japanese yen before slipping back slightly. Oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel.
Buying of technology shares linked to the boom in artificial intelligence has been driving rallies worldwide.
By midafternoon, the Nikkei 225 was up 2.9% at 68,634.74. Shares in computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron gained 13.4%, while those for chip testing equipment maker Advantest gained 5.9%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng lost 1.7% to 25,596.92, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.4% to 4,092.53.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.9% to 8,806.40 and Taiwan’s Taiex gained 2%.
In India, the Sensex lost 1.1%.
Markets in South Korea were closed for a holiday.
On Tuesday, winners of the artificial-intelligence boom kept driving higher, pushing U.S. stocks to more records.
“One thing that stands out in today’s market is how little investors seem willing to pay for protection despite a world overflowing with potential shocks,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to 7,609.78 after drifting between small gains and losses through the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4% to 51,307.79, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1% to 27,093.90. All three set all-time highs.
A report said that U.S. employers were advertising many more jobs at the end of April than economists expected, a potential signal of continued health for the U.S. labor market.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s stock soared 19.5% after it reported a profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts’ expectations. It credited demand from customers building their artificial-intelligence capabilities.
Marvell Technology leaped 32.5% for its best day since its stock began trading in 2000 after Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, suggested at a conference in Taiwan that Marvell could be “the next trillion-dollar company.” The last company to enter the expanding club of behemoths was Micron Technology, which is likewise riding the AI wave. Nvidia, which slipped 0.7%, has seen its total value top $5 trillion.
Generac climbed 5.7% after saying it signed a deal to provide backup power generators to an unnamed “leading hyperscale data center operator.”
Such “hyperscalers” are spending tremendous amounts of money to build huge AI data centers, which are powering what proponents believe is the next great revolution for the global economy.
Alphabet is one of those hyperscalers. The parent company of Google said it’s raising $80 billion in cash to help pay for its investments by selling shares of its stock, which lost 3.9% on Tuesday.
