Gold and silver climb higher after retreat on Wall Street

Asia shares traded mostly higher on Wednesday despite a retreat on Wall Street on selling of technology stocks, while gold and silver continued to regain ground after a recent sell-off. US futures edged higher and oil prices advanced. The future for the S&P 500 edged up 0.2%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.8% to 54,293.36, falling back from a record high set Tuesday. Shares of chipmaker Tokyo Electron fell 2.1%, while testing equipment maker Advantest also lost 2.1%. SoftBank Group shed 2.2%.

Shares of Nintendo plunged 11%, even as the Japanese video-game maker posted strong profits on Tuesday, as investors and analysts expressed concern about whether sales momentum can be maintained for the Switch 2 game console that was rolled out last year. South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.6% to 5,371.10. Samsung Electronics rose nearly 1%, while chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 0.8%. The index has been setting records nearly daily.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher to 26,868.97. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.9% to 4,099.54. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.8% higher at 8,927.80. Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.3%, while India’s Sensex slipped 0.1%. Gold and silver prices gained on Wednesday, as investors continued to shift funds into safe haven assets over concerns over geopolitical tensions, a weaker US dollar and tariff uncertainties.Gold rose 3.3%, while the price of silver jumped 7.3%. They have bounced back after tumbling in recent days.   (AP)