Global Markets Mixed After Wall St Bounce on Strong Profits
BEIJING (AP) -- Global stock markets were mixed Wednesday after Wall Street rose on strong corporate profit reports.
Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo advanced, while London, Hong Kong and Shanghai declined. The yen stayed near a two-decade low near 149 to the dollar. Oil prices rebounded.
The future for Wall Street's S&P 500 index rose 0.3% after the market benchmark gained 1.1% on Tuesday following strong results from investment bank Goldman Sachs, military contractor Lockheed Martin and others. The future for the Dow industrials gained 0.2%.
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On Tuesday, the Dow rose 1.1% and the Nasdaq composite advanced 0.9%.
Despite the strong headline numbers, "underlying details were rather mixed" and results from banks showed "the impact of economic activity slowdown," Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a report.
The profit reports temporarily offset investor worries that repeated interest rate hikes by U.S., European and Asian central banks to control inflation that is at multi-decade highs might tip the global economy into recession.
That concern has helped to drag U.S. stocks into a bear market, or a decline of more than 20% by the S&P 500 from its January high.
In early trading, the FTSE in London edged 0.1% lower to 6,828.30 after British inflation surged to a 40-year high of 10.1% in September. That increases the likelihood the Bank of England will raise interest rates further and faster.
The DAX in Frankfurt edged less than 0.1% higher, to 12,774.20, while the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.4% to 6,091.57.
In Asian trading, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.2% to 3,044.38 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 0.4% to 27,257.38. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 2.4% to 16,511.28.
The Kospi in Seoul declined 0.6% to 2,237.44 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 advanced 0.3% to 6,800.10.
India's Sensex added 0.2% to 59,093.99. New Zealand and Jakarta advanced while Singapore and Bangkok declined.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude gained 84 cents to $82.91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, picked up 62 cents to $90.65 per barrel in London.
The dollar rose to 149.46 yen from Tuesday's 149.21 yen. The euro declined to 98.14 cents from 98.50 cents.