Stocks, dollar rise as investors shrug off US violence

LONDON: Stock markets mostly gained Thursday as traders brushed off the storming of the Capitol building in Washington.

After gains across much of Asia, Europe followed suit, with Wall Street also pushing higher as trading got underway.

However, London dipped on profit-taking after a huge gain Wednesday.

The dollar rose across the board Thursday, while bitcoin continued its record run to strike an all-time high of $38,661.88.

Oil prices steadied after recent strong gains.

"Traders are unfazed by the chaos that we experienced on Capitol Hill yesterday," noted Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

Congress formally certified Joe Biden as the next US president on Thursday, dealing a hammer blow to Donald Trump whose supporters stormed the Capitol hours earlier, triggering unprecedented scenes of mayhem in the seat of American democracy.

It comes as Biden is set to push ahead with his legislative agenda that includes another huge stimulus package.

Analysts believe that while the new president could undo a lot of Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, he is unlikely to look at those until he has dealt with the virus and got the economy back up and running.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick J. O'Hare said the slim majority Democrats will enjoy in the Senate "suggests it will be hard to increase taxes in a challenging macroenvironment but more likely to pass more stimulus."

The violence in the US took attention away from soaring coronavirus cases around the world that are forcing governments to impose fresh lockdowns.

Traders are optimistic that the rollout of vaccines, though slower than hoped, will eventually allow life to get back to normal.

The Dow and S&P 500 both ended at new records Wednesday, though the Nasdaq reversed earlier gains on worries about possible Democrat-led regulation of big tech firms.

Hong Kong was in the red Thursday after six days of gains, with market heavyweights Alibaba and Tencent diving following a report that the Trump administration is considering barring investment in their New York shares.

Elsewhere, electric carmaker Tesla closed trading on Wednesday with a market value topping $700 billion for the first time.

The latest surge means the company is worth more than General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Fiat Chrysler and Volkswagen combined.

Key figures around 1430 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.3 percent at 6,821.96 points

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.5 percent at 13,954.92

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 5,660.71

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.2 percent at 3,619.56

New York - Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 30,974.88

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.6 percent at 27,490.13 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.5 percent at 27,548.52 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 3,576.20 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.2270 from $1.2325 at 2200 GMT

Dollar/yen: UP at 103.74 yen from 102.99 yen

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3596 from $1.3607

Euro/pound: DOWN at 90.31 pence from 90.55 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.1 percent at $50.57 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $54.16 per barrel