Global shares rise on Fed rate hopes despite China worries
TOKYO — Global shares gained Thursday, although optimism about the Federal Reserve holding back on aggressive interest rate raises was countered by some uncertainty about coronavirus restrictions in China.
France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.1% in early trading to 6,685.49, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.3% to 14,474.23. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1% to 7,475.55. The future for the Dow industrials edged 0.2% higher. The future for the S&P 500 added 0.3%.
Trading has been unsteady during the holiday-shortened week. U.S. markets are closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and will close early on Friday.
“A headwind for Asian markets is the COVID situation in China, where investors seem to be avoiding local assets and commodities as the country is seeing near-record numbers of COVID cases. Broad restrictions will keep weighing on risk sentiment and macroeconomic fundamentals, putting pressure on the outlook for cyclical stocks and commodities,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a commentary.
Pandemic lockdowns have been expanding across China, including in Zhengzhou, where workers at a factor for Apple’s iPhone clashed with police earlier this week.
Across China, the number of new cases reported Thursday was 31,444, the highest since the virus was first detected in late 2019.
