World Stocks Waver Thursday

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Global share benchmarks wavered Thursday, overshadowed by tensions over North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile launch. Investors were parsing the latest minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve and awaiting a Group of 20 summit that begins Friday.

KEEPING SCORE: Germanys DAX was flat at 12,454.19 and the CAC 40 of France lost 0.2 percent to 5,169.94. The FTSE 100 of Britain also was flat, at 7,369.15. Wall Street also looked set for a slow start, with Dow futures down 0.1 percent and S&P futures edging 0.4 percent lower.

NORTH KOREA: South Korean jets and navy ships fired a barrage of guided-missiles into the ocean during drills Thursday, a display of military power two days after North Korea test-launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile. The North's ICBM launch, its most successful missile test to date, has stoked security worries in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo as it showed the country could eventually perfect a reliable nuclear missile capable of reaching anywhere in the United States.

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FED MINUTES: Minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting showed policymakers are weighing when to start letting its $4.5 trillion bond portfolio shrink, a major turning point for the U.S. economy. Some Fed officials want to announce the start of that process within a few months, while others want to wait longer.

ANALYST'S VIEW: "The latest Fed minutes yielded a mixed perception from the market with varying views from members on both the inflation outlook and the timing for the reduction of the Fed's balance sheet," said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG in Singapore. "With the mixed tone from the minutes and the essential delay to the announcement of balance sheet reduction timing, there is no surprise why we are seeing the muted reaction from the markets."

G-20: Competing visions of world trade are set to collide at the G-20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg, Germany, this week. U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" approach will face off against the European Union and its support for broad free trade agreements, with the Europeans touting a new, far-reaching pact it is completing with Japan.

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 percent to 19,994.06 while South Korea's Kospi edged down less than 0.1 percent to 2,387.81. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.2 percent to 25,465.22. China's Shanghai Composite Index added 0.2 percent to 3,212.44. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.1 percent to 5,758.80. Southeast Asian stocks were mixed.

OIL: Benchmark U.S. crude added 68 cents to $45.81 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the contract slumped $1.94, or 4.1 percent, to $45.13 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 72 cents to $48.51 per barrel in London. In the previous session, it sank $1.82, or 3.7 percent, to $47.79 a barrel.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 113.19 yen from 113.28 yen. The euro was flat at $1.1352.

(KA)

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