Global stocks higher after Wall St retreats from record

Major global stock markets were mostly higher on Thursday after Wall Street retreated from a record high as major US banks reported strong profits.

London and Frankfurt opened higher while Tokyo also advanced. Shanghai and Hong Kong declined.

Wall Street futures were higher after the benchmark S&P 500 index on Wednesday closed 0.4% below the previous day’s record.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo announced quarterly earnings that beat forecasts. Much of the surge was due to strong trading revenue and expectations for better economic performance, which allowed banks to free up reserves held against the possibility loans might go bad.

The results showed 'investment banking and trading are strong and that the party will go on for a couple more quarters', said Edward Moya of Oanda in a report.

In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.4% to 6,970.02. The DAX in Frankfurt added 0.3% to 15,257.13 and the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.2% to 6,222.15.

On Wall Street, futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.4% higher.

On Wednesday, the Dow rose 0.2% while the Nasdaq composite dropped 1%. Apple and Amazon declined, but the majority of stocks in the S&P 500 rose.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5% to 3,398.99 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong declined 0.4% to 28,793.14.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained less than 0.1% to 29,642.69 and the Kospi in Seoul added 0.4% to 3,194.33.

The S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney was up 0.5% at 7,065.10 while India’s Sensex lost less than 0.1% to 48,535.98.

Jakarta declined after the government reported March exports surged 30.5% over a year earlier. New Zealand also fell while Singapore advanced.

Also Wednesday, Coinbase Global, an exchange for bitcoin and other digital currencies, closed at $328.28 per share on its first trading day after surging to $430 from an opening price of $381. At that price, investors say the company is worth more than $85 billion, more valuable than Nasdaq or Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange.

Investor expectations are high as other companies prepare to report quarterly profits.

Goldman Sachs rallied 2.3%, but JPMorgan Chase fell 1.9%. Wells Fargo jumped 5.5%, but only after swerving from an early-morning loss.

Also Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said again the US central bank will wait to raise interest rates until the job market has healed and inflation is on track to stay above 2%.

In energy markets, benchmark US crude lost 24 cents to $62.91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.97 on Wednesday to $63.15. Brent crude, used to price international oils, shed 24 cents to $66.34 per barrel in London. It gained $2.91 the previous session to $66.58.

The dollar edged down to 108.77 yen from Wednesday’s 108.94 yen. The euro rose to $1.1984 from $1.1970.