France's CAC 40 edged up 0.4% to 5,804.67 in early trading, while Germany's DAX added 0.5% to 13,995.18. Britain's FTSE 100 rose nearly 0.3% to 6,647.86. U.S. shares were set for declines with Dow futures down 0.3% at 31,386. S&P 500 futures fell 0.8% to 3,808.62.
Chinese computer chip maker SMIC dropped 5.2%; mobile phone maker Xiaomi lost 9%; Japanese technology and energy giant SoftBank shed 2.4% and printer and copy machine maker Ricoh lost 6.3%. The gradual vaccine rollout in most parts of the world is also boosting optimism, although it has hardly started in some Asian nations, including Japan.
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