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Asia Markets Lose Ground, Europe Rebounds Amid New Surge of Coronavirus Cases

VOA News

   Global markets are mixed Thursday, with Asia beginning the day
   sustaining serious losses due more pandemic-imposed gloom.

   The S&P/ASX in Sydney had the biggest losses in the region, plunging
   2.5%, and Japan's Nikkei index lost 1.2% for the day. Hong Kong's Hang
   Seng index dropped 0.5%, while Shanghai's Composite gained 0.3%.

   Seoul's KOSPI index lost 2.2%, but Taiwan's TSEC index rose 0.4%. The
   Sensex in Mumbai was fluctuating in late afternoon trading.

   The situation was much better in Europe, with the FTSE index in London
   up 0.2%, Paris's CAC-40 0.4% higher, and Frankfurt's DAX index up one
   percent.

   Oil markets are falling Thursday. U.S. crude oil is selling at $37.79
   per barrel, down 0.5%, and Brent crude trading at $40.20 per barrel,
   down 0.2%.

   The mixed situation is due to more bad news about COVID-19 from the
   United States, which posted more than 36,000 new coronavirus cases
   Wednesday, the highest one-day number of new cases since late April.
   Most of the numbers came out of Florida and Texas, both of which posted
   over 5,000 new cases, and California, which posted a staggering 7,000
   total new cases-- a record day for all three populous states. The news
   led to all three major U.S. indexes posting losses of well over 2%.

   And Wall Street is likely to get off to a bad start Thursday, with the
   Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all trending downward in futures trading.

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