US stock markets claw back brutal pre-Christmas losses with biggest one-day gain ever
Stock markets around the world have seen significant gains after Wall Street rallied following a savage four-day rout, which was the worst-ever selloff before the holidays.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 1,000 points, or 4.9 percent, its biggest single-day point gain in history. The S&P 500 also soared 4.9 percent. The Nasdaq, which had suffered the most in recent weeks, closed 5.8 percent up.
The rally came after a strongly positive report from Mastercard, which had revealed that holiday sales surged to their highest in six weeks. The data reportedly calmed recent concerns over the US economy.
The surge on Wall Street evoked a rally on Asia Pacific markets with Japan’s Nikkei closing 3.9 percent higher after a five percent drop on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, the benchmark ASX 200 index grew nearly 1.9 percent in Sydney.
However, Chinese stocks were lower with the Shanghai Composite index falling 0.6 percent, marking its lowest close since November 2014, while the blue-chip CSI300 was down 0.4 percent.
European markets were mixed in early trading on Thursday with the pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 index climbing 0.4 percent, and France's Cac 40 rising more than 0.7 percent after a sharp sell off earlier in the week. However, Germany’s DAX and the Britain's FTSE pushed lower, but the indices avoided heavy Monday losses.
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