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.
“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.
