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| - Stock markets mostly gained Thursday as investors kept an eye on US stimulus progress and the rollout of vaccines but surging infections and new lockdowns tempered gains. The pound held around 19-month highs against the dollar as the Bank of England held fire over interest rates and stimulus as Britain and the EU continue their 11th-hour talks on their post-Brexit trading arrangement. The strengthened pound though weighed on London's benchmark FTSE 100 stocks index featuring multinationals' earnings in dollars. Eurozone equity indices climbed after gains across much of Asia, while the dollar struggled after a Federal Reserve update. Wall Street also opened higher, with the Dow gaining 0.5 percent. Bitcoin extended gains to a fresh record above $23,000. The unit, which was wallowing around $5,000 in March, has soldiered higher since online payments giant PayPal said it would enable account holders to use cryptocurrency. "Markets overall are still in a positive frame of mind, managing to find the good news in an otherwise dull Fed statement and looking forward to some progress on a US stimulus deal, the major narrative behind this market bounce," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG trading group. Regarding US stimulus, lawmakers said they were hopeful of passing a much-needed rescue package for the economy as they haggled over details of a bipartisan proposal that appeared to have broken months of deadlock. With the two most contentious items removed from the plan, which is said to amount to around $900 billion, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said leaders "made major headway". "Wall Street is completely focused on stimulus talks and ignored deteriorating US economic data, except for the robust housing market," said Oanda analyst Edward Moya. New applications for US jobless benefits increased for the second week in a row, according to government data released Thursday, with 885,000 applications submitted last week. With additional jobless benefits set to run out over the holidays, news of rising unemployment may push lawmakers to reach a deal. Moya said investors said stocks are also rising on "hopes that a post-Brexit trade deal will be reached by Sunday." EU negotiator Michel Barnier on Thursday said talks with Britain on a post-Brexit trade deal were progressing but that there had been no breakthrough. "Good progress, but last stumbling blocks remain. We will only sign a deal protecting EU interests and principles," Barnier tweeted. London - FTSE 100: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 6,574.83 points Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.7 percent at 13,664.00 Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 5,564.95 EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.6 percent at 3,563.30 New York - Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 30,307.90 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.2 percent at 26,806.67 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 0.8 percent at 26,678.38 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.1 percent at 3,404.87 (close) Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3595 from $1.3503 at 2240 GMT Euro/pound: DOWN at 90.09 pence from 90.26 pence Euro/dollar: UP at $1.2250 from $1.2194 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 103.02 yen from 103.43 yen West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.9 percent at $48.24 per barrel Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.7 percent at $51.42 per barrel burs-rl/cdw
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