
BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly higher Friday in Europe and Asia after Nvidia and other technology stocks led an advance on Wall Street.
In early European trading, Germany’s DAX rose 0.6% to 26,523.10, while the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 1.1% to 8,408.72. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.2% higher, to 10,815.07.
The future for the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%.
South Korea’s Kospi was the biggest decliner, falling 1.8% to 6,788.88.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 climbed 0.4% to 66,405.56, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2% to 25,584.79.
The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.1% to 3,952.18.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.6% to 9,092.30.
Taiwan’s Taiex surged 0.8%, while the Sensex in India gained 0.2%.
The next big event for markets will be a speech later Friday by the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh. Despite pressure to provide guidance on U.S. policy, he has sought to give financial markets fewer clues about how the Fed intends to control inflation.
One wild card for inflation has been oil prices, which have been swinging with uncertainty about the war in Iran and when oil tankers will be allowed to freely navigate the Strait of Hormuz again.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, slipped 0.4% early Friday to $88.13. It rose 1.8% on Thursday.
U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 0.6% to $83.08 per barrel.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.7% and pulled closer to its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.6%.
Nvidia was the strongest force pulling the market higher. The chip giant rallied 8.7% after once again delivering stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave forecasts for upcoming revenue growth that topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting demand remains strong for chips to power artificial intelligence projects.
“AI has reached its inflection point,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said. “It’s doing useful work. Its tokens are productive and profitable.”
That helped calm some of the worries that have built around AI stocks generally, which have been under pressure recently. After rocketing higher for years because of the frenzy around AI, stocks in the industry are confronting skepticism that they have shot too high and that booming demand for AI chips may fade if the AI revolution does not produce as much profit as promised.
Another big tech company, Salesforce, jumped 22.6% for its best day in six years after it said that AI helped it deliver one of its best quarters in history.






