World stocks mixed following Wall Street retreat
MANILA, Philippines - World stocks traded mixed Friday, with a patchy performance in Asia and early gains in Europe and U.S. futures a day after losses on Wall Street.
Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.1 percent
lower at 15,734.46. China's Shanghai Composite index sank 0.9 percent to
2,004.95, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.6 percent to 23,133.35 after
slipping in early trading. Australia's S&P ASX 200 fell 0.6 percent to 5,305.90.
South Korea's Kospi was down 0.7 percent at 1,944.48, while most Southeast
Asian markets finished higher.
A day after eking out their first
record high of 2014, the U.S. markets lost ground Thursday as electronics
retailer Best Buy, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and railroad CSX had
disappointing earnings news. Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.1
percent to 1,845.89, retreating from the all-time high it hit the day before.
In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 inched
up 0.1 percent to 6,819.92. France's CAC-40 rose 0.1 percent to 4,322.60, while
Germany's DAX gained 0.3 percent to 9,741.62.
U.S. futures gained on Wall Street,
with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.1 percent at 16,335. S&P 500 futures
rose 0.1 percent to 1,837.20.
Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG in
Melbourne, Australia, said market performance in Asia was a follow-through from
the pullback in U.S. markets.
"It is a situation whereby U.S.
markets have rallied to record highs -- the S&P that is -- just a couple of
days ago, then of course investors will get a little bit nervous at high
levels," he said. "I think they'd really like to see the earnings
come out just to back up the theory that the U.S. markets are on the mend and
is in a much better place now."
He said earnings reports of other big
companies were expected later Friday, giving "some investors a reason to
stay out of the market and just keep a close eye on the situation" heading
into the weekend.
Benchmark crude for February delivery
rose 47 cents to $94.43 in electronic trading on the New York Merchantile
Exchange. The contract fell 21 cents to settle at $93.96 on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro fell to
$1.3601 from $1.3615 late Thursday. The dollar fell to 104.33 yen from 104.39
yen.