Global Shares Mixed Wednesday

TOKYO (AP) -- Global shares were mixed Wednesday after a Wall Street rally driven by healthy earnings reports from U.S. companies.

France's CAC 40 was down nearly 0.2% in early trading at 5,691.75. Germany's DAX was unchanged at 12,629.82. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.3% to 7,189.08. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures falling 0.3% at 26,917.00. S&P 500 futures were also down 0.3% at 2,988.00.

European shares fell after European Union and British negotiators failed to reach a breakthrough in Brexit talks during a frantic all-night session. They are to continue seeking a compromise on the eve of a crucial EU summit on Thursday.

In Asian trading, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.2% to finish at 22,472.92, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.3% to 6,736.50. Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.6% to 26,664.28, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.4% to 2,978.71.

South Korea's Kospi added 0.7% to 2,082.83 after the Bank of Korea announced it was cutting its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to a record-low 1.25%.

Shares also rose in Taiwan and most of Southeast Asia. India's Sensex fell 0.1%.

Stocks notched solid gains on Wall Street on Tuesday as investors welcomed surprisingly good quarterly results from some of the nation's biggest companies.

Strong earnings from UnitedHealth Group, JPMorgan Chase and other companies helped power the market's broad gains, erasing modest losses from a day earlier.

Investors are looking to the wave of quarterly report cards due out over the next few weeks to give them a clearer picture of what impact the trade war between the U.S. and China is having on corporate profits and the broader economy.

"Global market sentiment was seen picking up a notch overnight with Wall Street gaining on earnings despite the uncertainty that persists on U.S.-China trade," said Jingyi Pan, market strategist with IG in Singapore.

The encouraging earnings reports came with a spate of surprisingly good forecasts for the rest of the year, which helped ease concerns about a slowdown due to the costly trade conflict.

On Friday, the U.S. agreed to suspend a planned hike in tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods that had been set to kick in Tuesday. Beijing, meanwhile, agreed to buy $40 billion to $50 billion in U.S. farm products.

The U.S. did not, however, cancel plans for more tariffs in December and the sticking points of intellectual property and trade secrets still hang over the dispute.

ENERGY: Benchmark crude oil fell 24 cents to $52.57 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 78 cents to $52.81 a barrel Tuesday. Brent crude oil, the international standard, declined 35 cents to $58.39 a barrel.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 108.68 Japanese yen from 108.85 yen on Tuesday. The euro strengthened to $1.1025 from $1.1029.

(CZ)