European markets are rising Thursday on the heels of a chaotic day on Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index hours earlier.
At midday, London’s benchmark FTSE index is up 0.9%, the CAC-40 index is 0.8% higher and the DAX index has gained 0.1%.
Trading was halted early Thursday on the Nikkei, the world’s third-largest stock market, due to a glitch in its electronic trading system. The Japan Exchange Group, which operates the Nikkei, said the malfunction was due to a hardware failure in the system’s backup device. The company says it hopes to have the problem fixed and the Nikkei back up and running again Friday.
Elsewhere in Asia, the S&P/ASX index in Sydney closed up 0.9%, and Taipei's TSEC index was 0.3% higher. Mumbai’s Sensex is up 1.6% in late afternoon trading.
The indices in Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed due to national holidays in South Korea and mainland China.
In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,902.30 per ounce, up 0.3%. U.S. crude oil is selling at $39.85 an barrel, down 0.9%, and Brent crude oil is selling at $40.91 per barrel, down 0.1%.
All three major U.S. indices are trending positively in futures trading before the opening bell sounds on Wall Street.
