Stocks are opening modestly higher on Wall Street, potentially setting the S&P 500 up for a third gain in a row after what has been a weak start to the year. The benchmark index was up 0.3% in the early going Thursday. It’s still down slightly since the beginning of the year.

Technology stocks were doing better than the rest of the market, and the Nasdaq was up 0.4%. Small-company stocks were also doing well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3%. Crude oil prices were little changed and Treasury yields were holding steady. Overseas markets were mixed.

Overseas, shares were mostly lower in Asia on Thursday after the latest report of surging prices in the U.S. appeared to keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates in coming months.

London, Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai were lower while Sydney and Hong Kong advanced.

Surging coronavirus cases have been raising uncertainty about the pace of recovery from the pandemic. Britain and Germany have endured severe waves of the highly contagious omicron variant of coronavirus. France is at the epicenter of Europe’s current fight against COVID-19, with new infections topping 360,000 a day in recent days.

Germany's DAX fell 0.2% to 15,973.58 while the CAC 40 in Paris sank 0.6% to 7,196.23. In Britain, the FTSE 100 lost 0.3% to 7,533.13. On Wall Street, the futures for the S&P 500 and for the Dow industrials were down less than 0.1%.

In Asia, the omicron variant has swept across Australia and is gaining ground in other countries despite high vaccination rates, mask requirements and strict border policies. Japan reported more than 13,000 new infections on Wednesday, the highest level in four months. China, whose zero-COVID policies are being challenged by outbreaks just weeks ahead of the Beijing Winter Games, is testing and in some cases locking down entire cities.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index dropped 1% to 28,489.13, while the Shanghai Composite shed 1.2% to 3,555.26. In Seoul, the Kospi lost 0.4% to 2,962.09.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged 0.1% higher, to 24,429.77 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia added 0.5% to 7,474.40. India's Sensex edged 0.1% lower.

Taiwan's benchmark rose 0.3% after TSMC, the world's largest contract manufacturer of computer chips, reported a record quarterly profit of just over $6 billion.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was steady at 1.74%.

Apart from the direct impact from big coronavirus outbreaks on normal business activity, spill over effects on manufacturing and shipping could further hinder a rebound from the past two years of disruptions.

“So far, the market’s reaction to the omicron wave has been moderate, but it is worth paying attention to worries about further impacts to global supply chains which could trigger risk-off trade," Anderson Alves of ActivTtrades said in a report.