Global stocks were mixed Wednesday after Wall Street rebounded, shrugging off uncertainty about a possible new attempt to impeach President Donald Trump over last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.
London and Frankfurt opened little-changed. Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul advanced. Shanghai and Hong Kong declined.
U.S. futures gained after Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose overnight, recovering from the previous day’s decline.
Analysts suggested investors were more focused on President-elect Joe Biden’s economic stimulus plans after he takes office next week than on the aftermath of last week’s turmoil.
Democrats in Congress are discussing possibly impeaching Trump for encouraging supporters who attacked the Capitol, but the president has taken few official actions since then.
“Hopes are pinned on the incoming Biden administration, leveraging Democrat Senate majority, to emphatically tackle COVID,” Mizuho Bank said in a report.
In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London was up less than 0.1% at 6,758.20. The DAX in Frankfurt rose less than 0.1% to 13,931.37. The CAC 40 in Paris added 0.2% to 5,663.73.
On Wall Street, the future for the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1%.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose less than 0.1%. The Dow gained 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite added 0.3%.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3% to 3,598.65 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo advanced 1% to 28,456.59. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 0.2% to 28,235.60.
The Kospi in Seoul added 0.7% to 3,148.29 and the S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney was up 0.1% at 6,686.60.
India’s Sensex lost 0.9% to 49,118.50. New Zealand declined while Southeast Asian markets advanced.
Investor hopes have been boosted by the rollout of coronavirus vaccines. Markets have risen despite a spike in case numbers in the United States and some other countries.
In the United States, those hopes have been encouraged by the shift in control of the Senate from Republicans to Biden’s Democratic Party. That might reduce the likelihood of political opposition if Biden introduces a more ambitious stimulus plan. He has said he will release details Thursday.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose 30 cents to $53.51 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 96 cents on Tuesday to $53.21. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 34 cents to $56.92 per barrel in London. It gained 92 cents the previous session to $56.58.
The dollar declined to 103.77 yen from Tuesday’s 103.83. The euro fell to $1.2196 from $1.2201.
