|
 On Wednesday, U.S. investors were spooked by the minutes to the last
Fed policy meeting and that caution carried through into the Asian
and European sessions on Thursday.
The minutes indicated that the central bank would likely start
tapering off its $85 billion worth of monthly asset purchases in
"coming months" if the job market improved further. A report
Thursday showing weekly U.S. jobless claims fell 21,000 to 323,000
likely reinforced that view.
"With some predicting a token taper as early as next month, any
strength in next month's payrolls number is likely to bring
additional caution to risky assets," said Brenda Kelly, senior
market strategist at IG.
Thursday's claims figures failed to prevent a bounceback in U.S.
stocks — the Dow Jones industrial average was trading 0.6 percent
higher at 15,996 and the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.7 percent to
1,793.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed flat
at 6,681.33 while Germany's DAX fell 0.1 percent to 9,196.08. The
CAC-40 in France shed 0.3 percent to 4,253.90.
Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.5 percent to 23,580.29
and China's Shanghai Composite eased 0.04 percent to 2,205.77.
Seoul's Kospi was down 1.2 percent to 1,993.78 and Australia's S&P/ASX
200 retreated 0.4 percent to 5,288.32.
[to top of second column] |
Japan's Nikkei 225 bucked the trend to rise 1.9 percent to
15,365.60, boosted by a weaker yen, which helps the competiveness of
the country's exporters. The dollar was up 0.7 percent at 100.93
yen.
The euro, meanwhile, rose 0.3 percent to $1.3468 even though a
closely watched survey pointed to a waning economic recovery in the
17-country eurozone.
Financial information company Markit said its purchasing managers'
index — a gauge of business activity — fell in November to a
three-month low of 51.5 points from 51.9 the previous month. The
fall was unexpected — most economists had been predicting a modest
rise to around 52.
Even though the index remained above the 50 mark that indicates
expansion for the fifth month running, the decline adds to the
recent evidence suggesting that the eurozone recovery is not gaining
traction.
[Associated
Press; PAN PYLAS]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
