AP – Global shares were mixed yesterday after shares slumped on Wall Street despite better-than-expected reports on the United States (US) jobs market and business activity.
The future for the S&P 500 was 0.2 per cent higher and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 per cent.
Germany’s DAX added 0.1 per cent to 20,366.67 and the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1 per cent to 7,483.37. Britain’s FTSE 100 was flat at 8,243.39.
In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.3 per cent to 39,981.06. The US dollar was trading at JPY158.25, up from JPY158.06. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.9 per cent to 19,279.84 and the Shanghai Composite index was nearly unchanged at 3,230.17.
Shares of Tencent fell 2.7 per cent, and shares in CATL, the world’s largest electric vehicle battery maker, dropped 1.7 per cent.
In South Korea, the Kospi jumped 1.2 per cent to 2,521.05. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.8 per cent to 8,349.10.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.1 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4 per cent. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 1.9 per cent.
Stocks dropped as bond yields rose following the release of the encouraging reports on the economy. One said US employers were advertising more job openings at the end of November than economists expected. The other said activity for finance, retail and other services businesses grew much faster in December than expected.
That’s good news for workers looking for jobs and for anyone worried about a possible recession that earlier seemed inevitable to some. But a strong economy could also keep up pressure on inflation, and it could make the Federal Reserve (Fed) less likely to deliver the cuts to interest rates that Wall Street loves.
