BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly higher Friday in Europe and Asia after Nvidia and other technology stocks led an advance on Wall Street. In early European trading, Germany’s DAX rose 0.6% to 26,523.10, while the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 1.1% to 8,408.72. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.2% higher, to 10,815.07.The future for the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%. South Korea’s Kospi was the biggest decliner, falling 1.8% to 6,788.88.In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 climbed 0.4% to 66,405.56, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2% to 25,584.79. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.1% to 3,952.18. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.6% to 9,092.30. Taiwan’s Taiex surged 0.8%, while the Sensex in India gained 0.2%. The next big event for markets will be a speech later Friday by the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh. Despite pressure to provide guidance on U.S. policy, he has sought to give financial markets fewer clues about how the Fed intends to control inflation.
One wild card for inflation has been oil prices, which have been swinging with uncertainty about the war in Iran and when oil tankers will be allowed to freely navigate the Strait of Hormuz again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, slipped 0.4% early Friday to $88.13. It rose 1.8% on Thursday.
