Global stock markets diverged Wednesday as traders fret over the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on the Chinese and global economies, with fears that his policies could also reignite US inflation.The prospect of higher prices on the back of Trump’s planned tax cuts, import tariffs and an easing of regulations gave fresh impetus to the dollar, which has rallied since the Republican’s election win last week.Focus is now on the release of key US October consumer price data due later in the day, with expectations for a slight uptick from the previous month.”It’s particularly pertinent given concerns that Trump’s tariff policies will be inflationary,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.”If prices are already looking unruly, expectations will rise for Trump’s threats to be watered down.”The reading will be pored over for an idea about the Federal Reserve’s plans for borrowing costs when it meets again in December.Major European indices edged higher around midday Wednesday.Shares in Siemens Energy surged more than 15 percent after the German company posted positive annual results and upgraded its outlook.Asian markets mostly ended lower as Trump named known China hawks to key cabinet positions, fuelling concerns about another debilitating trade war between the economic superpowers.”We expect the effective tariff rate on US imports from China to rise to around 40 percent,” said Harry Murphy Cruise at Moody’s Analytics.”That would effectively double the rate today,” he told AFP.”It’s likely the threat of further tariffs up to the touted 60 percent would be used as a negotiating tool.” Cruise said “China would almost certainly follow suit, imposing tariffs of its own of equal magnitude”.The threat of another standoff comes as Beijing struggles to kickstart growth at home, unveiling a raft of measures at the end of September but leaving traders disappointed.China’s state media on Wednesday reported that Beijing had announced a raft of tax policies aimed at boosting the country’s ailing property market.Wall Street provided a negative lead, with its three main indices finishing in the red Tuesday as investors took a breather from a week-long rally to more record highs.Traders are keeping tabs on bitcoin after it came within a whisker of breaking $90,000 for the first time on Tuesday owing to Trump’s pro-crypto campaign pledges.- Key figures around 1100 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 8,062.73Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 7,248.33Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 19,096.11Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.7 percent at 38,721.66 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 19,823.45 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,439.28 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 0.9 percent at 43,910.98 (close)Dollar/yen: UP at 154.98 yen from 154.59 yen on TuesdayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0617 from $1.0625Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2741 from $1.2748Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.31 pence from 83.34 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.7 percent at $72.38 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $68.61 per barrel

Airlines cancelled flights to and from the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Wednesday, leaving travellers stranded after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower miles into the sky.At least 16 international routes were affected after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a nine-kilometre (5.6-mile) tower a day earlier, the general manager of Bali’s international airport said in a statement.Flights from Singapore, Hong Kong, Qatar, India, Australia, Malaysia, China’s Pudong and South Korea’s Incheon were all either delayed or grounded, Ahmad Syaugi Shahab said Wednesday.Animal clinic worker Samsudin, 52, from Indonesia’s main island was transiting in Bali to Malaysia and forced to spend the night at the airport.”I’m sleeping here rather than going back to Java. It is far,” he told AFP.”I’m waiting here, until tomorrow,” he added, saying he bought a new flight after his AirAsia ticket was refunded.Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights, while Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as cancelled on Wednesday, an AFP journalist at Bali’s airport said.”Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” said AirAsia as it announced several cancellations.Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific also listed its flights as cancelled, rescheduling routes to and from Bali until Thursday.Multiple eruptions from the 1,703-metre (5,587-foot) twin-peaked volcano in recent weeks have killed nine people, with 31 injured and more than 11,000 evacuated, Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said Tuesday.Eruptions can pose serious risks to flights, disgorging fine ash that can damage jet engines and scour a plane’s windscreen to the point of invisibility.The island’s tourism head called for calm after the cancellations, saying the island was “very safe” because the volcano is far away.”Bali’s tourism activity is still running normally,” Tjok Bagus Pemayun said in a statement Wednesday.But airlines said the situation was too dangerous to keep their planes in the sky.Jetstar said all flights to and from Bali would be halted until noon on Thursday as it was “currently not safe to operate flights”.Malaysia Airlines said it had cancelled six flights Wednesday in a statement on its website, while Scoot said it scrapped two flights and rescheduled four more.The airlines said they would monitor the volcano’s status and provide updates.Singapore Airlines was still listing its flights as running on Wednesday.- ‘Refunds, rescheduling, re-routing’ -Bali airport’s Shahab said 26 domestic and 64 international flights had been affected by recent eruptions as of Wednesday afternoon.”Due to this natural event impacting flight operations, airlines are offering affected passengers the options of refunds, rescheduling, or re-routing,” he added in a statement.But some said they were set to be stranded for days, with little help forthcoming.”There’s nobody helping us, nobody is providing us accommodation or food, we are kind of stranded,” said IT consultant Arsh Khurana, 39, from Delhi whose Air India flight was rescheduled to Saturday.”There is nothing from Air India, there is absolutely no support,” he told AFP, adding that he and his wife were set to lose money as the airline’s travel insurance did not cover disruptions caused by volcanic eruptions.Local media reported thousands of passengers were affected but Balinese officials gave no estimate.Bali’s international airport operator PT Angkasa Pura Indonesia said Wednesday it had conducted tests in its airspace and no volcanic ash was detected, saying the airport was “operating as normal”.But the airport in the tourist hotspot of Labuan Bajo on Flores island was shuttered on Wednesday until 8pm local time (1200 GMT) because of the volcanic ash from Lewotobi, according to the airport’s Instagram.Lewotobi erupted again from midnight Wednesday until early morning, and a large ash column could be seen pouring from its crater, an AFP journalist nearby said.Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman”.The island’s economy is heavily reliant on tourism but Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire where tectonic plates collide.