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NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A rally at Micron following a strong quarterly outlook from the US semiconductor company had a positive impact on chip stocks worldwide on Thursday. The tech sector was also generally supported by monetary policy signals from the US Federal Reserve. Shares in the chip giant soared to a record high of 113.50 US dollars at the start of trading. They last traded 15.7 percent higher at 111.45 dollars.

The Micron rally also pulled other sector stocks upwards. Western Digital shares climbed by 7.2 percent and Applied Materials by 4.0 percent. Broadcom shares also showed strength with a rise of 8.7 percent. In Europe, industry stocks Infineon, ASML and STMicroelectronics rose by up to 5.0 percent.

Micron announced sales targets for the current quarter after the close of trading the previous evening, which surprised the market positively. The driver is demand related to artificial intelligence (AI). The company is forecasting turnover of USD 6.4 to 6.8 billion in the third quarter. This compares with an average analyst estimate of just under 6 billion.

Timothy Arcuri of Swiss bank UBS emphasized that Micron had struck exactly the right note - also with regard to pricing and the durability of the current cycle. "We have been saying for a long time that the peak will only come when the gross margin reaches it," said the expert. This is unlikely until well into 2025. He emphasized that the share, which has a "buy" rating, remains one of his top ideas. He raised the price target slightly to 125 dollars.

According to one trader, Micron's statements are a sign that the situation on the memory market is improving. The increase in investment forecast for 2025 is also positive for equipment manufacturers and suppliers, provided they can be associated with the memory and AI business.

In addition, the US government wants to further boost the chip industry in the country with additional billions in subsidies. President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that his government intends to provide the US chip giant Intel with up to 8.5 billion dollars (around 7.8 billion euros) in direct funding and 11 billion dollars (around 10.1 billion euros) in loans for computer chip factories in four US states. The financial injection is intended to help increase the US share of global production of state-of-the-art chips to 20 percent by the end of the decade./edh/tih/mis