World stocks rose on Wednesday, following Wall Street's gains as markets there reopened for what is expected to be a quiet, holiday-shortened trading week.
The future contract for the S&The P 500 added less than 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.1% lower.
European shares opened steady on the first trading day after the holiday. The German DAX rose 0.3% to 16,754.87. In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.4% to 7,597.52. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.7% to 7,749.36.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index added 1.2% to 33,681.24 after details of a Bank of Japan policy meeting showed officials divided over the timing and the need to move away from long-standing lax monetary policy of the central bank.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.8% to 16,627.00 and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.5% to 2,914.61, as Chinese video game companies including Tencent and NetEase pared losses in the first trading session in Hong Kong after the government tried to allay market fears over draft guidelines to impose controls on how companies make money from games. However, gains were dwarfed by losses from a broad sell-off on Friday.
NetEase's Hong Kong-traded shares rose 11.9% after Nasdaq-listed shares rose 5.2% on Tuesday. Tencent's rose 4.0% in Hong Kong and Bilibili added 6.7%.
The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.4% to 2,613.50. In Sydney the S&The P/ASX 200 was 0.8% higher at 7,561.20.
Bangkok's SET fell less than 0.1% and Mumbai's Sensex rose 0.5%.
Tuesday on Wall Street, the S&The P500 rose 0.4% to 4,774.75, ending less than 0.5% below its all-time high of almost two years ago. The benchmark index is posting eight straight weekly gains, its longest winning streak since 2017.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 37,545.33, while the Nasdaq composite finished 0.5% higher at 15,074.57.
Trading was relatively light when US markets reopened after Christmas. Still, the latest gains have been widespread, with advancers outnumbering decliners nearly 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.
With less than a week to go in 2024, the S&The P 500 is now up more than 24% this year, while the Nasdaq is up 44%.
Investors have been encouraged by reports showing inflation is easing, even as the economy appears stronger than expected.
The Federal Reserve is walking a tightrope, trying to slow the economy enough through higher interest rates to cool inflation, but not so much that it pushes the country into a recession.
In other trading early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude added 3 cents to $75.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 10 cents to $80.95 a barrel.
The US dollar rose from 142.38 yen to 142.53 Japanese yen. The euro rose from $1.1044 to $1.1049.