Financial Markets                      07/15 09:24

   Technology stocks are leading markets worldwide on Wednesday as winners of 
the artificial-intelligence boom gather more strength following several shaky 
weeks.

   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 189 points, or 0.4%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern 
time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% 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.

   From Amsterdam, ASML, a 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 7.3% 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 2.7%, and Morgan Stanley added 0.6% 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 8.5% 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.

   The U.S. stock market, meanwhile, broadly got a lift from another report 
showing inflation slowed in the United States last month. This one said 
inflation at the wholesale level slowed to 5.5% last month from 6% in May, and 
it was a much better reading than the acceleration that economists expected.

   The day before, a separate report said that inflation that U.S. consumers 
are feeling was also not as bad as economists expected last month.

   Such numbers take pressure off the Federal Reserve, which is considering 
raising interest rates. Higher rates would keep a lid on inflation, but they 
also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments.

   Following the inflation report, traders see just a 9% chance that the Fed 
will raise its main interest rate at its next meeting in a couple weeks. That's 
down from the nearly 42% probability they saw on Monday, before the inflation 
reports, according to data from CME Group.

   That helped send the yield on the 10-year Treasury down to 4.56% from 4.58% 
late Tuesday and from 4.62% the day before.

   Still, upward pressure on inflation remains. The price for a barrel of Brent 
crude rose 0.5% to $85.19 following days of back-and-forth strikes by the 
United States and Iran across the Middle East.

   Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened Wednesday to halt all energy exports 
from the Middle East because of the blockade the U.S. military has put in place 
to prevent tankers carrying Iranian oil from using the Strait of Hormuz.

   "The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or 
for no one," the Revolutionary Guard said.

   In stock markets abroad, European indexes were mixed amid mostly modest 
movements.

   In Asia, stocks rose 1.4% in Hong Kong but fell 0.3% in Shanghai after the 
Chinese government said its economy expanded at a 4.3% annualized pace last 
quarter, down from the 5% growth rate at the start of the year.

   ___

   AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

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