By Samuel Indyk and Koh Gui Qing
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -Global shares rose on Wednesday, powered by a rise in technology stocks after U.S. President Donald Trump announced mammoth spending plans for artificial intelligence infrastructure, while the dollar sagged to a two-week low as tariffs were delayed.
Late on Tuesday, Trump announced that OpenAI, Japan’s SoftBank and Oracle will form a joint venture and invest up to $500 billion to build data AI centers.
Shares of SoftBank surged 10.6% in Tokyo, while Oracle gained 7.6% on Wall Street, adding to Tuesday’s 7.2% jump.
The gains helped lift the tech-heavy Nasdaq 1.3%. The benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.7%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%. The MSCI index of world shares rose 0.6%.
Even with global stock markets near record highs, some investors said they could rise further.
“We prefer taking risk in stocks and expect corporate earnings to keep driving returns as the fourth-quarter reporting season starts,” Jean Boivin, the head of BlackRock Investment Institute said, adding that Treasury yields might jump.
“We are in a world of higher interest rates and expect them to stay above pre-pandemic levels. Even with the jump in yields, we still see more room to run, if at a slower pace,” Boivin said.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose 2.7 basis points to 4.5820%.
European shares were higher despite threats of U.S. import tariffs, with Trump again vowing to hit the European Union with fresh levies. But Europe was breathing a sigh of relief as many investors and foreign capitals had expected tariffs to be implemented on Trump’s first day in office, as he had promised during his campaign.
“Trump seems more focused at home and Europe’s got a stay of execution,” said Eddie Kennedy, head of bespoke discretionary fund management at Marlborough. “Therefore, I think it makes sense to have a little rally.”
The pan-continental STOXX 600 was up 0.4% after hitting a record intraday high. Blue chips in Frankfurt and London also hit new intraday peaks before pulling back.
Europe’s infrastructure stocks, such as Schneider Electric and Prysmian, were some of the outperformers on Trump’s AI investment push.
Investment in AI has surged since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, lifting share prices of chipmakers and those building the infrastructure, helping drive gains in the broader market.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.6%, lifted by the near 11% rise in SoftBank shares.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, however, was flat as drops in Chinese and Hong Kong stocks offset broad gains elsewhere.
