* KOSPI clears 7,000 mark as Samsung joins the $1

trillion club

* MSCI All-Country World Index sets fresh all-time high

* Yen surges to 155 against the dollar as intervention

talk swirls

(Updates prices, commentary)

By Gregor Stuart Hunter

SINGAPORE, May 6 (Reuters) - Stocks leapt, oil prices

sank and the dollar dropped on Wednesday after U.S. President

Donald Trump touted "great progress" towards a "final agreement"

with Tehran, while momentum in AI-driven trades accelerated.

Trump said he would briefly pause an operation escorting ships

through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of

global oil and has been blockaded by Iran since late February,

triggering a global energy crisis. The news sent Brent crude

tumbling 1.6% to $108.07 per barrel, while S&P 500

e-mini futures were up 0.3%.

MSCI's All-Country World Index rose 0.4% to a

fresh record alongside similar milestones for its Emerging

Markets benchmark and its broadest index of

Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, which jumped

2.8%. The share surge was led by a 6.6% charge for South Korea's

Kospi, which cleared the 7,000 mark for the first time.

Elsewhere in foreign exchange markets, the yen

strengthened sharply in afternoon trading, gaining as much as

1.8% to 155 against the dollar as traders remained on the

lookout for fresh intervention by authorities in Tokyo in

support of the beleaguered currency.

"There's a bit of optimism around a U.S.-Iran 'deal' at the

moment; it's possible the authorities decided that was a good

moment to give the yen an extra nudge," said Thomas Mathews,

head of markets for Asia Pacific at Capital Economics in

Wellington. "That said, it might just be thin holiday-affected

trade; best to wait and see how it fares towards the end of the

week."

Stocks on Wall Street hit fresh records on Tuesday as the

S&P 500 rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite gained

1%.

"Investors bought and continue to add to positioning in the

2026 winners," said Chris Weston, head of research at

Pepperstone Group Ltd in Melbourne. "There has been some buying

in S&P 500 materials stocks, but it's tech that continues to

attract the bulk of flows, notably in Apple and the memory

plays."

As the Seoul market reopened after a holiday, Samsung

Electronics ( SSNLF ) jumped 14.8%, topping a $1 trillion

market value, overtaking Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK/A ) and closing

in on Walmart ( WMT ).

"Due to the capex spend we are seeing from hyperscalers in

the U.S., the earnings growth trajectory for sectors such as

semiconductors, tech hardware, industrials and materials in Asia

exceeds anything I have seen in a long time," said Rushil

Khanna, head of equity investments for Asia at Ostrum, an

affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers.

"This capex is leading to material value creation in Asia as

the provider of the picks and shovels to the AI ecosystem," he

said.

Shares in Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) jumped 16.5% in

extended trading as the company forecast second-quarter revenue

above Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, helped by keen demand

for its dead-centre chips as cloud-computing companies

accelerate spending on AI infrastructure.

In the foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar index,

which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six

currencies, was down 0.3% at 98.02.

The euro stood at $1.1736 and sterling was at $1.3588

, both up around 0.4% so far on the day.

The Australian dollar fetched $0.7246, rising about

0.9% to the highest since June 2022, buoyed by improved risk

appetite and underpinned by a third straight interest-rate hike

a day earlier. The New Zealand dollar was up 1% at

$0.5947.

The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond was flat at

4.424%.

Gold was 2.1% higher at $4,651.84. In cryptocurrencies,

bitcoin nudged 0.5% lower to $81,264.67 while ether

was down 0.8% at $2,364.40.