World shares mixed, futures advance after Wall St retreat

World shares were mixed on Wednesday, with European benchmarks and U.S. futures mostly higher despite an overnight retreat on Wall Street.

Stocks rose Wednesday in London, Paris and Tokyo but fell in Frankfurt and Shanghai.

The U.K. economy officially fell into recession after official figures showed it contracting by a record 20.4% in the second quarter as a result of lockdown measures put in place to counter the pandemic.

The quarterly update was the worst since records began in 1955, the Office for National Statistics said.

Still, Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.7% to 6,196.71, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.3% higher, to 5,042.72.

Germany's DAX slipped 0.1 percent to 12,939.74.

Concerns over fresh waves of new coronavirus infections are gaining traction with a resurgence of cases in Germany and other European countries.

Germany has been lauded for keeping the pandemic under control for a long time, but the easing of measures and the return of travelers have in recent weeks lead to an uptick of infections.

Germany’s Robert Koch-Institute, which tracks the coronavirus, registered 1,226 new infections on Wednesday. That’s the highest number since early May.

U.S. futures advanced despite a late slide in big technology companies on Tuesday that left indexes broadly lower, breaking a seven-day winning streak for the S&P 500.

The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.7% to 3,351.70 while the contract for the Dow industrials jumped 0.9% to 27,865.00.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.4% to 22,843.96, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rebounded from early losses, surging 1.4% to 24,228.10. In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.6% in a late comeback, closing at 2,432.35. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.6% to 3,319.27. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined...