European stocks mostly rose Thursday in slow end-of-year trading overshadowed by fears about the Omicron Covid-19 variant, while US markets also pressed higher.
Paris and Frankfurt both climbed but London fell, as across the Atlantic the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq all booked gains by late morning.
"Worries about the Omicron variant have receded, but the speed of its spread is tempering sentiment," analysts at Charles Schwab wrote.
The world's top economy had hit its highest-ever seven-day average of new Covid cases Wednesday.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization warned a "tsunami" of infections would push health systems to the brink of collapse, as an AFP count showed the world topped one million cases detected in 24 hours for the first time.
Investors have clung to data showing a reduced risk of hospitalisation from Omicron, and the fact that trading volumes are extremely low in the period between Christmas and the New Year.
Markets are also "showing some resiliency in the face of expectations that the Fed could accelerate its monetary tightening campaign and as inflation pressures persist," Schwab said.
One bright spot for traders was a lower-than-expected US jobless claims report for last week.
Asia's main indices had earlier ended mixed, while Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime was a big winner with a 23-percent jump to its share price on its Hong Kong debut.
Aviation giant Emirates said it expects business to grow next year despite the surge in global coronavirus cases fuelled by Omicron.
Tokyo closed lower Thursday, its last trading day of 2021, but the benchmark Nikkei index rose nearly five percent for the year to its highest annual close since the 1989 boom.
Elsewhere in Asia, embattled Chinese property giant Evergrande tumbled 10 percent after a report that the group had failed to meet two more offshore payments.
In Europe, data showed that a record number of companies made their market debut on the Euronext index in 2021 as the pan-European exchange benefited from Brexit and added Milan to the group.
Euronext said 212 companies were newly listed this year for a total market capitalisation of 123 billion euros ($139 billion), but it did not indicate how many had delisted.
The index includes exchanges in Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Oslo, Paris and Milan, which joined the group this year.
AFP
