Asian shares gained and gold and silver climb higher after a retreat on Wall St

HONG KONG — 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.

U.S. 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.

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 U.S. 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.

''After plunging from record highs amid elevated volatility, precious metals attracted renewed buying interest,'' ING Bank analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note.

''Safe haven demand is among factors that will remain supportive of gold prices over the medium term," they said.

Nvidia, one of the world's most valuable companies, fell 2.8%. Shares of Microsoft fell 2.9%. Investors have been rotating in and out of technology-related stocks on concerns over whether their shares were being overvalued and if their heavy spending on artificial intelligence investments will pay off.

PayPal sank 20.3% following weaker-than-expected results for the latest quarter. Pfizer dipped 3.3%, despite stronger-than-expected quarterly profit results.

In other dealings early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 36 cents to $63.57 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 25 cents to $67.58 per barrel. Oil prices were firmer partly due to tensions resurfacing between the U.S. and Iran after a U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone flying close to a U.S. aircraft carrier, analysts at ING Bank said.

The U.S. dollar rose to 156.46 Japanese yen from 155.77 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1830, up from $1.1818.

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