Asian shares were mostly higher on Wednesday and oil prices fell after the U.S. stock market rose to more records. South Korea’s Kospi jumped nearly 5% and Taiwan’s benchmark also surged as the boom in artificial intelligence drove heavy buying of computer chipmakers and other technology companies. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 also was lifted by gains for tech-related shares, climbing 1.3% to 65,816.62. It topped 66,000 for the first time in intraday trading.Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron’s shares jumped 5.9% and testing equipment maker Advantest gained 5.7%. The latest rally in tech shares followed a 19.3% advance for Micron Technology, which was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 after analysts at UBS led by Timothy Arcuri raised their 12-month price target for the stock to $1,625 from $535. Micron closed at $895.88.
The analysts are forecasting continued strength in demand for computer memory. Micron’s stock has more than tripled so far this year and it has become the latest Big Tech company to top an overall value of $1 trillion, joining Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, which have each blown past $3 trillion.
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