Global Markets Continue to Rebound

Global equities continued to rebound Wednesday after last week's declines.

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5% in the opening minutes of trade, while futures pointed toward gains Wall Street.

Infrastructure-services company Balfour Beatty PLC was one of the largest gainers in Europe, up 4.7% after reporting a pretax profit in the first half.

Equities were broadly higher in Asia, as short positions over tensions in the Korean Peninsula unwound. However, caution remains ahead of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises next week, analysts say.

Stock benchmarks in China, Australia, South Korea and Hong Kong were up so far this week, as investors found value in high-growth stocks following last week's pullback, which many analysts believed was overdue.

The Shanghai Composite Index pared early losses to trade 0.2% lower, with large caps succumbing to selling pressure after recent gains. Stocks were higher in Hong Kong, with the Hang Seng Index up 0.7%.

"We have had an uncharacteristic bull market in the past few months," said Michael Parker , Asia-Pacific equity strategist at Bernstein. "During a bull market, the sharper the one-day selloff, the better the buying opportunity."

Gold continued to come under pressure as the geopolitical environment relaxed, down 0.3%.

On Tuesday, South Korea's president called for renewed talks with the North, saying that the U.S. would need Seoul's consent for any military action on the Korean Peninsula, which helped to ease tensions.

The South Korean Kospi outperformed as traders returned from a public holiday to catch up with the region's earlier gains. The benchmark index was up 0.6% after opening about 1% higher. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics led gains, up 2.7%.

In Hong Kong, improved risk-taking appetite prompted strong buying among Chinese banking and casino gambling stocks. Messaging giant Tencent Holdings, which is scheduled to release its second-quarter results later Wednesday, rose 1%.

In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average edged lower 0.1%, even as the U.S. dollar was up 0.1% against the yen. The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 0.1%.

Broad gains in the dollar came after data from the U.S. Commerce Department showed retail sales rising 0.6% from a month earlier, the biggest jump since December, with much of that coming from internet sales.

John Wu contributed to this article.

Write to Kenan Machado at kenan.machado@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 16, 2017 04:04 ET (08:04 GMT)