World shares advance as Wall St gains on rate cut hopes

European and Asian shares mostly gained on Tuesday after US stocks rallied on hopes the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates soon.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 per cent. Germany’s DAX edged 0.1 per cent lower to 23,216.76, and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.1 per cent to 7,965.77. Britain’s FTSE 100 likewise gained 0.1 per cent, to 9,542.55.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 picked up 0.1 per cent to 48,659.52 as a plunge in technology giant SoftBank’s shares weighed on the market. It fell 10.3 per cent on concerns that returns from its heavy investments in OpenAI may be threatened by the next generation Gemini artificial intelligence model that Google launched last week.

In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.3 per cent to 3,857.78. Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 1.5 per cent. Chinese markets also advanced. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng climbed 0.7 per cent to 25,894.55, while the Shanghai Composite index jumped 0.9 per cent to 3,870.02. E-commerce giant Alibaba, which was due to report its earnings late Tuesday, gained 2.1 per cent in Hong Kong. Australia’s S&P/ASX rebounded to edge 0.1 per cent higher, closing at 8,537.00. US markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. A day later, it’s on to the rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The US stock market rallied on Monday, at the start of a week with shortened trading because of the Thanksgiving holiday. The S&P 500 climbed 1.5 per cent in one of its best days since the summer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.7 per cent. Stocks got a lift from rising hopes that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again at its next meeting in December, a move that could boost the economy and investment prices.