Global Stocks Advance Wednesday

BANGKOK (AP) -- World shares advanced on Wednesday after most stocks slipped on Wall Street following a mixed set of reports on the U.S. economy.

Germany's DAX edged 0.1% higher to 16,542.15 and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.2% to 7,397.84. In London, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 7,521.99.

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1%.

In Asian trading, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.8% to 16,573.00, while the Shanghai Composite edged 0.1% lower, to 2,968.93.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 2% to 33,445.90 after a top central bank official reiterated the Bank of Japan's determination to maintain its easy credit policy until it achieves a stable level of inflation.

In Seoul, the Kospi was up less than 0.1%, at 2,495.38. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.7% to 7,178.40.

India's Sensex gained 0.5% and the SET in Bangkok advanced 0.3%.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 edged 0.1% lower for its first back-to-back loss since October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.

U.S. stocks and Treasury yields wavered after reports showed that employers advertised far fewer job openings at the end of October than expected, while growth for services businesses accelerated more last month than expected. Just 8.7 million jobs were advertised on the last day of October, down by 617,000 from a month earlier and the lowest level since 2021.

With inflation down from its peak two summers ago, Wall Street is hopeful the Federal Reserve may finally be done with its market-shaking hikes to interest rates and could soon turn to cutting rates. The hope is that the U.S. economy might pull off a perfect landing where it snuffs out high inflation but avoids a recession.

A separate report said that activity for U.S. services industries expanded for the 41st time in the last 42 months, with growth reported by everything from agriculture to wholesale trade. Strength there has been offsetting weakness in manufacturing.

Traders widely expect the Federal Reserve to hold its key interest rate steady at its next meeting next week, before potentially cutting rates in March, according to data from CME Group.

In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 29 cents to $72.03 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 32 cents to $76.88 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 147.33 Japanese yen from 147.15 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0795 from $1.0797.