Global markets are mixed Wednesday as investors’ earlier enthusiasm over news of a promising coronavirus vaccine is tempered by the pandemic’s grip on the planet. Japan’s Nikkei index lost 0.5%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.4%, while the Composite index in Shanghai gained 0.3%. Australia’s S&P/ASX index closed down 1.2% after news reports about a jump in new coronavirus infections in the southern state of Victoria, home to Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne. Elsewhere, the KOSPI index in South Korea was down, but essentially unchanged percentage-wise, and Taiwan’s TSEC index is up 0.6% Mumbai’s Sensex index is up 0.1% in late afternoon trading. In European, the FTSE index in London is down 0.3% in early morning trading. Paris’s CAC-40 index is 0.8% lower, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is down 0.4%. The political gridlock in the United States over a new financial aid package for millions of Americans left unemployed due to the pandemic has also cast a pall over the markets. In oil trading, U.S crude is selling at $41.76, down 0.4%, while Brent crude is down $44.26, down 0.4%. All three major U.S. indices are trending upward in futures trading.
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