NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks are leading markets worldwide on Wednesday as winners of the artificial-intelligence boom gather more strength following several shaky weeks. The gains came even though oil prices remain near their highest levels in a month because of the war with Iran.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and was on track for a fourth gain in five days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 165 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the
Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.
The strength for AI stocks began in Asia, where South Korea’s Kospi index jumped 6.2%. Its market is dominated by two huge tech companies, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and the index has already had drops of 8.9%, 7.9% and 5.3% so far this month.
In Amsterdam, ASML rose 2.3% after the bellwether of the chipmaking industry reported stronger revenue growth for the latest quarter than it had forecast. CEO Christophe Fouquet said continuing progress in the AI boom has customers accelerating their expansions, and the maker of chipmaking machinery gave a forecast for revenue growth in the summer that topped analysts’ expectations.
The strength helped calm some of the worries that have sent AI-related stocks spinning recently. Chief among them is the possibility that their prices shot too high in the euphoria around AI. Worries have been rising that surging demand for AI chips and data centers may fizzle if they don’t produce enough profits and productivity to make all the investments worth it.
On Wall Street, strong profit reports from several big U.S. companies also helped to lift the market.
BlackRock rose 7.6% after the company behind some of the most popular investment funds reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Laurence Fink said its iShares funds topped $6 trillion in assets under management during the quarter, roughly doubling in three years.
Bank of New York Mellon rose 2.5%, and Morgan Stanley added 1% following their profit reports. They followed a spate of strong earnings reports a day earlier from many of the biggest U.S. banks.
They helped offset a drop for Elevance Health, which fell 11.1% even though it reported stronger profit and revenue than analysts expected.
Expectations are high for U.S. companies’ profit growth during the spring. They’ll need to beat them to justify the big moves their stock prices have made, with indexes near their records.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
