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World stocks up on bargain-hunting, Trump tax plan progress

Investors are keeping an eye on Washington, where Republican lawmakers are struggling to hammer out a tax reform deal

Global stock markets rebounded Thursday as investors snapped up bargains after the recent sell-off, encouraged by solid US earnings and progress in Washington on President Donald Trump's tax cut plan. After Tokyo recovered from a six-day losing streak and European indices pushed higher, US stocks rallied, with the Nasdaq jumping 1.3 percent to finish at a fresh all-time high. The day before, global equity markets had dropped, hit by sliding oil prices and doubts over the US tax cut plan's prospects, as well as profit-taking as investors worried that stocks were overvalued. "Equities are benefiting from a return of risk appetite following a two-week sell-off," said Accendo Markets analyst, Mike van Dulken. After months of anticipation, the lower house of Congress approved Trump's landmark tax overhaul 227 to 205, with all Democrats and a handful of Republicans voting against. Investors applauded the progress and overlooked the myriad controversies that have split Senate Republicans and are expected to result in a much thornier debate in the upper chamber. Phil Davis of PSW Investments warned that "investors are jumping the gun." "The risk is the Senate," Davis said. "If they lose one more person (in the Senate), this thing is dead." At the end of the session in Europe, the Frankfurt and Paris stock markets were each up by more than half a percent. The gains in London were more modest, dampened by lackluster UK retail sales data. In commodities trading, oil prices dipped further after plummeting this week when energy watchdog the IEA cut its forecast for crude consumption for next year. That has been compounded by official data pointing to a rise in US stockpiles and the possibility that an OPEC-Russia output cut may not be extended. Among individual companies, Wal-Mart surged 10.9 percent after boosting its full-year profit forecast, as US comparable stores rose 2.7 percent, propelled in part by higher sales in hurricane-affected regions. Cisco, another Dow component, rose 5.2 percent after reporting that quarterly earnings rose 3.1 percent to $2.4 billion, besting analyst expectations. German industrial heavyweight Siemens climbed 1.1 percent after announcing it planned to cut 6,900 jobs, around half of them in Germany, where Siemens also plans to close sites in the country's economically weaker east. Union leaders vowed to fight the plan. - Key figures around 2200 GMT - New York - DOW: UP 0.8 percent at 23,458.36 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.8 percent at 2,585.64 (close) New York - Nasdaq: UP 1.3 percent at 6,793.29 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 7,386.94 (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.6 percent at 13,047.22 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 5,336.39 (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.5 percent at 3,564.80 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.5 percent at 22,351.12 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 0.6 percent at 29,018.76 (close) Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,399.25 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1772 from $1.1790 Dollar/yen: UP at 113.02 yen from 112.84 yen Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3192 from $1.3170 Oil - Brent North Sea: DOWN 51 cents at $61.36 per barrel Oil - West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 19 cents at $55.14 per barrel burs-jmb/dw