Updates prices

By Samuel Indyk and Koh Gui Qing

NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 22 (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 9984.T surged 10.6% in Tokyo, while Oracle ORCL.N gained 7.6% on Wall Street, adding to Tuesday's 7.2% jump.

The gains helped lift the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC 1.3%. The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX rose 0.7%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI added 0.3%. The MSCI index of world shares .MIWD00000PUS 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 US10YT=RR 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 .STOXX was up 0.4% after hitting a record intraday high. Blue chips in Frankfurt .GDAXI and London .FTSE also hit new intraday peaks before pulling back.

Europe's infrastructure stocks, such as Schneider Electric SCHN.PA and Prysmian PRY.MI, 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 .N225 rose 1.6%, lifted by the near 11% rise in SoftBank shares.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS, however, was flat as drops in Chinese and Hong Kong stocks offset broad gains elsewhere.

Trump said his administration was considering a 10% punitive duty on Chinese imports because fentanyl is being sent from China to the U.S. via Mexico and Canada.

Chinese blue chips .CSI300 fell 0.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index .HSI lost 1.6%.

DOLLAR DROPS TO TWO-WEEK LOW

The delay by Trump in imposing tariffs on major economies pushed the dollar to a two-week low against a basket of currencies.

The U.S. dollar index =USD, which measures the currency against six others, was little changed at 108.15, having earlier fallen to its lowest level since Jan. 6 at 107.75.

The dollar "sold off in response to the lack of clear Day One tariffs news, though it's difficult to separate out how much of that move is a partial unwind of dollar-long positioning, and how much is a more durable market reassessment of tariff risks," said Stuart Jenkins, FX strategist at Goldman Sachs.

The euro EUR=EBS was at $1.042000, after earlier rising to $1.0457, its highest level since Dec. 30.

The dollar was up 0.6% at 156.48 yen JPY=EBS after falling to a one-month low in the previous session.

The Japanese currency has strengthened against the dollar recently, supported by growing expectations the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates at its policy meeting on Friday.

In commodities, oil prices were slightly lower, after falling more than 2% on Tuesday on Trump's plans to boost U.S. energy production. Brent crude LCOc1 settled down 0.37% at $79.00 a barrel, while U.S. crude CLc1 settled down 0.51% at $75.44.

Spot gold XAU= added 0.4% to $2,755.5 per ounce, after earlier hitting its highest level since October, driven by uncertainty over Trump's policy plans.

(Reporting by Samuel Indyk; Editing by Jan Harvey, Nick Zieminski and Leslie Adler)

((Samuel.Indyk@thomsonreuters.com))

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