European financial markets are mostly higher Thursday.
Paris’s CAC-40 index is up 0.8% at the midday mark, while the DAX in Frankfurt is trading 1.3% higher. London’s FTSE is down 0.5%.
Asian markets finished their trading sessions on a strong note earlier Thursday. The Nikkei index in Tokyo closed 0.4% higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rallied late in the day to finish 0.3% higher, while Shanghai’s Composite surged 1.3%.
Elsewhere in the region, the S&P/ASX index in Sydney is up 0.6%. Seoul’s KOSPI index is 0.4% higher, Taiwan’s TSEC rose 0.1% and Mumbai’s Sensex finished up1.1%.
Oil markets are mixed, with U.S. crude oil selling at $40.76 per barrel, down 0.3%, and Brent crude, the international standard, selling at $43.34 per barrel, up 0.1%.
In futures trading, the Dow and S&P 500 are trending downward, while the NASDAQ is higher ahead of Thursday’s opening bell on Wall Street.