Global Shares Mixed After Wall St Slips
BEIJING (AP) -- Global stock markets were mixed Friday after Wall Street slipped on uncertainty about the U.S. economic outlook.
Frankfurt, Shanghai and Hong Kong advanced while London and Tokyo declined on a day with no major market-moving news.
Overnight, Wall Street's benchmark S&P-500 index lost 0.3% after the government reported another 1.3 million people applied for unemployment last week.
Global markets have recovered most of this year's losses, buoyed by optimism about work on a possible coronavirus vaccine. But economists warn the rise might be too fast to be sustained by uncertain economic activity as infections in the United States and some other countries increase.
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“This may indicate nothing more than a short pause for repositioning, or minor correction before the next upward leg,” Robert Carnell of ING said in a report.
In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London was down less than 0.1% at 6,246.00 and Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.2% to 12,902.52. The CAC 40 in France lost 0.4% to 5,066.06.
On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index was up 0.2%. That for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed.
On Thursday, the Dow lost 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite, which set a record last week, lost 0.7%.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.1% to 3,214.13 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo shed 0.3% to 22,696.42. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 0.5% to 25,089.17.
Seoul's Kospi added 0.8% to 2,201.19 and the S&P-ASX 200 ended up 0.4% at 6,033.60.
India's Sensex gained 0.6% to 36,710.63. New Zealand and Bangkok gained while Singapore and Jakarta retreated.
U.S. investors have been encouraged by signs of more business activity as anti-virus controls are eased. But California and some other areas have reimposed orders closing bars and some other businesses after a renewed surge in infections.
Tech stocks were among the market's hardest hit on Thursday, a turnaround from their resilient run through much of the pandemic. Microsoft fell 2%. Apple lost 1.2%. Both are still up roughly 30% this year on expectations that they can keep growing despite the pandemic.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude oil lost 29 cents to $40.46 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract declined 45 cents on Thursday to settle at $40.75. Brent crude, the standard for pricing international oils, retreated 35 cents to $43.00 per barrel in London. It fell 42 cents the previous session to $43.37.
The dollar declined to 107.13 yen from Thursday's 107.26 yen. The euro gained to $1.1408 from $1.1386.