Global Shares Mixed on Tuesday

TOKYO (AP) -- Global shares meandered Tuesday after a retreat on Wall Street.

France's CAC 40 was little changed, inching down less than 0.1% in early trading to 4,945.35. Germany's DAX added 0.6% to 13,018.55, while Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.7% to 5,921.03. U.S. shares were set for gains, with Dow futures up 0.2% at 28,481.0. S&P 500 futures rose nearly 0.4% to 3,511.38.

In Asia, Australia's benchmark led the declines, falling nearly 2% as the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to keep interest rates at record lows, as expected.

The Japanese government reported that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July stood at 2.9%, little changed from recent months.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index was flat, finishing at 23,138.07, and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong also was little changed at 25,184.85. South Korea's Kospi gained 1.0% to 2,349.55. The Shanghai Composite index added 0.4% to 3,410.61. The S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.8% to 5,953.40.

“Stocks have had a choppy session in Asia, with investors shifting to and fro between COVID resurgence, central bank stimulus, and the convincing economic rebound in China,” said Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at AxiCorp.

He noted that a survey of purchasing managers, the Caixin PMI, beat expectations at 53.1, the fastest rise in August for nearly a decade. The index is on a scale up to 100, with 50 being the cutoff between expansion and contraction.

Although the pandemic started in China, that economy has been among the first to rebound. Export-oriented nations in Asia are likely to be instant beneficiaries of a China revival.

“This should provide a boost to local stocks as well as global commodity markets,” Innes said.

Leaders of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party were negotiating over who will replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after he steps down.

Abe has announced he would resign due to health problems. Expectations are high his successor will continue the “Abenomics” policies he launched in early 2013, aimed at spurring growth through massive central bank stimulus and cheap credit.

Encouraging economic data as broad swaths of economies reopened this summer have helped stoke investor optimism about a recovery. The question is whether that's going to be enough to keep markets moving higher when so much uncertainty remains about the pandemic's lasting impact on companies and consumers.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil added 52 cents to $43.13 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 36 cents to $42.61 a barrel on Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 56 cents to $45.84 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar fell to 105.63 Japanese yen from 105.94 yen. The euro cost $1.1982, up from $1.1940.