BEIJING –
Global stocks and Wall Street futures were mixed on Thursday as traders tried to figure out the potential impact of the latest coronavirus variant.
London and Frankfurt opened lower and Shanghai and Tokyo fell. Advanced Hong Kong.
It is not clear if Omicron is more dangerous than other variants. But governments have responded by tightening travel controls. That is fueling uncertainty about the outlook for a global economic recovery.
On Wall Street, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% and the S&P 500 gained 0.5%. The 1.2% drop on Wednesday despite surveys showing hiring and factory activity in November were better than expected. Markets fell when the White House announced the discovery of the first case of Omicron in the United States.
On Wednesday, the Dow fell 1.3% and the Nasdaq fell 1.8%.
In early trading on Thursday, the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.9% to 7,105.89 and the DAX in Frankfurt fell 1.4% to 15,263.35. CAC in Paris fell 1.2% to 6,798.75.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite lost less than 0.1% to 3,573.84 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 0.6% to 27,753.37. Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.6% to 23,788.93.
Kospi in Seoul rose 1.6% to 2,945.27 while Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 lost 0.2% to 7,225.20.
India’s Sensex rose 0.8% to 58,165.65. New Zealand and Singapore fell while Jakarta rose.
The latest data “paints an optimistic picture of economic conditions, but that appears to be backing off as the Omicron variant has the potential to change the game,” IG’s Yeap Jun Rong said in a note. fox.
Investors were perplexed after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the US central bank may withdraw stimulus measures sooner than expected due to persistently high inflation.
The Fed’s bond purchases are pumping money into the financial system, boosting stock prices. The S&P500 has more than doubled since March 2020.
In the energy market, the price of U.S. benchmark crude rose 87 cents to $66.44 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 61 cents on Wednesday to $65.57. Brent crude, the price benchmark for international oils, rose $1 to $69.87 a barrel in London. It lost 36 cents in the previous session to $68.87.
The dollar rose to 113.21 yen from Wednesday’s 112.79 yen. The euro rose to $1.1323 from $1.1319.
