European markets have started the week on a high note as news of U.S. President Donald Trump’s continued recovery from his COVID-19 infection appeared to calm nervous investors.
London’s FTSE index and the CAC-40 index in Paris are both up 0.6% at the midday point in the trading day, while the DAX index in Frankfurt is 0.7% higher.
Trading in Asia also ended on a positive note on Monday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index closed 1.2% higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index finished up 1.3%. The S&P/ASX index in Australia soared 2.5%. South Korea’s KOSPI index finished 1.2% and the TSEC index in Taiwan ended 0.2% higher, while Mumbai’s Sensex is up 0.7%.
Shanghai’s Composite index is closed for a national holiday.
In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,903.80 an ounce, down 0.2%. U.S. crude oil is trading at $38.64 per barrel, up 4.2%, and Brent crude oil is trading at $40.74 per barrel, up 3.7%.
The 74-year-old U.S. president was flown to Walter Reed Military Medical Center near Washington last Friday after announcing he contracted the disease, but his doctors say he is responding well to treatment and could return to the White House on Monday.
All three major U.S. indices are trending higher in futures trading ahead of Monday’s opening bell on Wall Street.
