Global stock markets rise after Wall St rebounds

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets rose Wednesday after President Joe Biden reassured investors by calling for vaccinations and testing but no travel curbs in response to the omicron coronavirus variant.

Shanghai, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. London opened lower.

Wall Street rose after Biden announced Tuesday the government will provide rapid-test kits and increase vaccination efforts but gave no indication of plans for restrictions that might disrupt the economy. Other governments in Asia and Europe have tightened travel controls or pushed back plans to relax curbs already in place.

Biden “provided some much-needed reassurances for markets,” Yeap Jun Rong of IG said in a report.

In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London was off 0.2% at 7,286.79 while Frankfurt's DAX added 1.4% to 15,447.44. The CAC 40 in Paris rose 1.4% to 6,964.99.

On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index was off less than 0.1%. That for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up less than 0.1%.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 1.8%, putting it within 1.4% of its Dec. 10 all-time high. The Dow gained 1.6% and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.4%.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index closed up less than 0.1% at 3,628.31 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.1% to 28,548.80. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 1% to 23,204.27.

The Kospi in Seoul added 0.2% to 2,980.69 while Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 lost 0.1% to 7,345.30.

India's Sensex advanced 0.9% to 56,319.01. New Zealand declined while Southeast Asian markets advanced.

Traders were rattled by official statements that omicron was spreading faster than expected after airline, cruise line, oil and other travel-related stocks had risen earlier on expectations tighter controls could be avoided.

Sentiments also have been dampened...