BANGKOK (AP) โ European stocks opened higher on Thursday after a mixed session in Asia, following another record close for the S&P 500.
Germany's DAX added 0.1% to 18,500.63. In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.4% to 8,240.07. In London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 7,957.26.
The S&P 500 future fell 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average future was little changed.
The dollar remained strong against the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan, a trend that has worried regulators in both Tokyo and Beijing.
The dollar rose to 151.45 yen from 151.30 yen. The euro fell to $1.0803 from $1.0828.
On Wednesday, the dollar rose to nearly 152 yen, its lowest level since 1990, and Japanese officials reiterated their desire for stability in exchange rates.
"As the yen continues to show vulnerability, market participants will be attentive to any signs of possible intervention in the foreign exchange market by Japanese authorities," Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a commentary.
The dollar bought 7.2286 yuan. It has also weakened against the dollar in recent weeks.
"We still think authorities in China and Japan will do enough to prevent their currencies from weakening much further, but the risk of a downward slide in one, or both, is increasing," Jonas Goltermann of Capital Economics said in a report.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 1.5% to 40,168.07. Seoul's Kospi also fell, losing 0.3% to 2,745.82.
Chinese markets recovered the previous day's losses. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.9% to 16,541.42, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.6% to 3,010.66.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1% to 7,896.90. India's Sensex added 1.6% and Taiwan's Taiex fell 0.3%.
In Bangkok, the SET fell 0.3%.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.9% to a record 5,248.49 in its first gain since setting its last all-time high on March 21.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% to 39,760.08 and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.5% to 16,399.52. Both finished a little short of their own records.
Merck rose 5% after federal regulators approved its treatment for adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare disease in which blood vessels in the lungs thicken and narrow.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group rose another 14.2%. The company behind the money-losing platform Truth Social has gone far beyond what critics consider rational, as fans of former President Donald Trump continue to push it upwards.
GameStop fell 15% after posting a profit in the latest quarter and a drop in revenue from a year ago. It's the original meme stock, predating Trump Media by years.
This week's highlight for markets may come on Friday, when the US government releases the latest monthly update on US consumer spending. It will include the measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve prefers to use when setting interest rates.
Both the US stock and bond markets will be closed on Good Friday. That could cause some early trading to pile up on Thursday, the last trading day of the first quarter of the year.
The S&P 500 is on track for a fifth straight month of gains and has been rising strongly since late October. The U.S. economy has remained remarkably resilient despite high interest rates aimed at controlling inflation. Additionally, it appears the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates this year because inflation has cooled from its peak.
But critics say a broader range of companies will need to generate strong profit growth to justify the big price moves. Progress to reduce inflation has also become bumpier lately, and this year's reports have been more positive than expected.
Still, the general expectation among traders is that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting its main interest rate in June.
Stocks generally tend to outperform when more than half of the world's central banks are cutting interest rates, according to Ned Davis Research. The world is not there yet, but several central banks have already started cutting recently, such as Switzerland, and this could happen later this year.
In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 24 cents to $81.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, added 15 cents to $85.56 a barrel.
