Global stock mkts continue to rise as economies reopen after Covid lockdown

Global stock markets rose on Wednesday, extending three days of gains, as more economies reopened from shutdowns they had imposed to stem the coronavirus pandemic.

Asian indices closed higher and European markets were up in midday trading, while Wall Street futures pointed to gains on the open in the US.

“The theme of reopening optimism has its stronghold on markets going into the midweek,” said Jingyi Pan, market strategist for IG in Singapore.

Investors appear to be focused instead on hopes that the worst of the pandemic downturn has passed, or will soon, as governments slowly lift the restrictions that left broad swaths