Global stocks follow Wall Street higher after Fed pledge

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets followed Wall Street higher Thursday after the Federal Reserve chairman said the U.S. central bank is in no hurry to withdraw support for the economy.

London and Frankfurt rose in early trading. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul closed higher. U.S. futures were mixed.

Overnight, Wall Street hit a new high after chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed sees no sign inflation might rise out of control. That helped to dampen fears sparked by a rise in U.S. Treasury bond yields, an indicator of inflation sentiment, that rising price pressure might lead the Fed to raise interest rates.

"Powell has again been pouring oil on troubled markets," said Robert Carnell of ING in a report. “But the Fed still has communication issues over its future policies which could emerge as a tantrum some way down the line.”

In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.3% to 6,680.06 and Frankfurt's DAX added less than 0.1% to 13,985.53. The CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.4% to 5,819.27.

On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index was off less than 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 added 1.1%. The Dow climbed 1.4% and Nasdaq Composite picked up 1%.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.6% to 3,585.04 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 1.7% to 30,168.27.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 1.2% to 30,074.17 after the territory's government promised more coronavirus aid and forecast economic growth of at least 3.5% this year.

The Kospi in Seoul added 3.5% to 3,099.69 after the Bank of Korea left interest rates unchanged and forecast 3% annual economic growth.

Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 was 0.8% higher at 6,834.00 and India's Sensex gained 0.8% to 51,181.85. New Zealand...