Markets recover from high oil shock

By midday Wednesday, the New York markets were following the lead of most world markets.

The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 each were up 0.5 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.6 percent, all on the strength of falling crude oil prices.

The London markets were up, but only slightly. The FTSE 100 gained only 0.1 percent, and the FTSE 250 was up 0.8 percent.

Allied Domecq remained the same after yesterday’s enormous jump. In Europe, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 ended 0.4 percent higher.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei and Topix indexes each finished 0.5 percent higher. Once again, most of the strength in Japanese markets came from export-dependent stocks such as technology and automobile manufacturing, as well as due to the falling price of crude oil.

The Shanghai composite index rose 1.9 percent after two straight days of losses, mostly on the strength of investors looking for good buys.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 0.4 percent.

Story link: Markets recover from high oil shock