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BEIJING - Global stock markets and U.S. futures rose Monday after Wall Street hit a new high despite lingering unease about a possible new wave of coronavirus infections. Benchmarks in London, Frankfurt, Shanghai and Tokyo advanced. Markets have recovered most of this year´s losses despite rising infection numbers in the United States, Brazil and some other countries. Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index ended last week up 0.7%, though the majority of stocks in the index declined. The gain was driven by the strength of technology stocks. Forecasters say the recovery might be too early and strong to be sustained by uncertain economic activity. Market benchmarks have been lifted by the outperformance of big companies, while smaller stocks still are down. The global economy "offers few reasons to be upbeat," Mizuho Bank said in a report. A man looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. As...

By Karin Strohecker LONDON, Aug 24 - Equity markets gained for a second straight session on Monday as hopes for a coronavirus treatment boosted risk assets and markets geared up for the U.S. Federal Reserve's annual Jackson Hole meeting later in the week. Europe's pan-regional STOXX 600 rose 1.3% and the global benchmark added 0.4% after U.S. regulators authorised the use of blood plasma from recovered patients as a treatment option. The rises follow healthy gains in Asia, where MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan jumped 0.8% to flirt with a six-month high touched last week and Japan's Nikkei added 0.3%. U.S. futures indicated gains on Wall Street ahead, raising the prospect of record highs for the S&P 500. Markets latched onto an announcement from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for an "emergency use authorisation" which will allow the use of blood plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 as a treatment for ...

By Sruthi Shankar Aug 24 - European stocks bounced from a two-week low on Monday as signs of progress in developing a COVID-19 treatment offset fears about a resurgence in virus cases across the continent that could risk stifling an economic recovery. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.3%, mirroring gains for Asian markets after the U.S. health regulator said on Sunday it authorized the use of blood plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 as a treatment. Spain's Grifols, one of the world's top producers of treatments based on human plasma, gained 3%. AstraZeneca Plc jumped 2.5% after the Financial Times reported the Trump administration was considering fast-tracking an experimental COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the company. "The weekend's vaccine news is at the fore," said Keith Temperton, an analyst at Lombard Forte. "But we're in this mid-summer volume vacuum, where the path of least resistance is higher." Oil and gas comp...

Ireland’s housing minister said that the EU’s Trade Commissioner should resign after he attended a controversial golf event in the west of the country. Pressure has been building on Phil Hogan to step down from the EU role. Mr Hogan is a senior Irish politician with significant standing in Brussels who would be deeply involved in any deal with Britain after Brexit. On Monday, the country’s Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said that Mr Hogan should take responsibility for his actions. The commissioner has also been urged to consider his position by the leaders of Ireland’s coalition Government, Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar, after attending a dinner at a hotel in the west of Ireland with more than 80 people present. Police are investigating whether coronavirus regulations were broken in holding the Irish parliament’s golf society event two days after the Government announced it intended to curb the numbers permitted to gather together. Mr O’Brien also criticised the “drip feed” of...