Markets move gently up

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Markets around the world were up Wednesday, at least partly on the strength of falling crude oil prices only days after those prices had reached an all-time high. The Shanghai composite index rose 1.9 percent after two straight days of losses, mostly on the strength of investors looking for good buys. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 0.4 percent.In Tokyo, the Nikkei and Topix indexes each finished 0.5 percent higher. Once again, most of the strength in Japanese markets came from export-dependent stocks such as technology and automobile manufacturing, as well as due to the falling price of crude oil. Western markets were up, as well. In London, markets were up only slightly. The FTSE 100 gained only 0.1 percent, and the FTSE 250 was up 0.8 percent. Allied Domecq remained the same after yesterdays enormous jump. Meanwhile, in Europe, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 ended 0.4 percent higher. Markets in the U.S. appeared to be following suit. At midday, the New York markets were also higher on the strength of falling crude oil prices. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 each were up 0.5 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.6 percent.