Global Markets Rise, Tracking Wall Street Gains Ahead of Thanksgiving
By Dow Jones Newswires StaffInternational stock markets tracked Wall Street gains and U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. The higher close in the prior session was broad-based, even as AI chip giant Nvidia's shares fell amid potential competition in AI semiconductors from Google.Also in investors' focus, delayed U.S. economic data that again boosted expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut next month.The Fed's Beige Book, or summary of current economic conditions, is due Wednesday along with weekly jobless claims and durable goods order data.U.S. futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.4%, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% and Nasdaq stock futures were up 0.5%. Changes in futures do not necessarily predict movements after the opening bell.Early in Europe, major stock markets were up around 0.5%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.3% with the budget landing later. WPP's shares were down 1.2% amid expectations it is going to fall out of the blue-chip index after more than 27 years.Asian shares closed mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei ended up 1.8% with SoftBank clawing back some of its prior-session losses to close up 5.8%. South Korea's Kospi Composite gained 2.7% and the Hang Seng ended up 0.1%.The U.S. dollar traded near a one-week low after softer-than-expected U.S. data on Tuesday firmed expectations for the Fed to cut interest rates next month. The DXY dollar index against a basket of major currencies was recently up 0.1% to 99.757 but near a low of 99.602 reached earlier.Bitcoin rose slightly following gains in U.S. stocks overnight; it was last up 0.9% to $87,837, LSEG data show, having hit a seven-month low of $80,553 on Friday. The cryptocurrency has struggled to rise meaningfully since consolidating from the record high of $126,223 in early October.Sterling was up against the weaker dollar but flat versus the euro as investors await the U.K. autumn budget later, where fiscal tightening is expected. Treasury Chief Rachel Reeves is likely to focus on tax increases and less on spending cuts, Commerzbank's Michael Pfister said in a note. Attention will be on whether the measures reduce inflation pressures to allow for more interest-rate cuts and how complicated the combination of measures turn out to be, he said. Sterling was recently up 0.1% to $1.3176.Yields on U.K. government bonds, or gilts, were up slightly after Tuesday's falls; the 10-year gilt yield rose 2 basis points to last trade at 4.514%, according to Tradeweb data. They fell to an 11-day low of 4.483% on Tuesday.U.S. Treasury yields edged higher ahead of the Treasury's $44 billion auction of seven-year notes and the economic data. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 1.1 basis points to 4.012%, according to Tradeweb.In commodities, oil prices were little changed in early trading as investors closely monitor developments in Ukraine-Russia peace negotiations, with Brent crude and WTI up 0.1% to $61.84 and $58 a barrel, respectively. Gold futures in New York were up 0.4% to $4,157.90 a troy ounce.Write to Barcelona Editors at [email protected]