Goldman Sachs maintained a 12,000 target for South Korea’s KOSPI and raised its 12-month target for the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index to 1,080 from 990, citing AI hardware demand, advanced chips, high-bandwidth memory and data-center investment. Asian technology shares subsequently lifted the Nikkei by about 2% and the Kospi by around 3% to 6,900, while Brent crude rose 0.6% to $96.85 a barrel and U.S. crude reached $92.10 amid tensions around the Strait of Hormuz. Goldman raised its 2026 earnings-per-share growth forecast for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index to 55% from 45% and upgraded Taiwan to overweight, but warned that AI-spending durability, memory-sector cyclicality, capacity additions, China’s CXMT and political opposition to U.S. data-center construction remain risks. Inflation and monetary-policy expectations also remained in focus ahead of the August U.S. CPI report and an expected European Central Bank rate increase to 2.50%.