BEIJING ( Associated Press) – Global stock markets and Wall Street futures were mixed on Friday ahead of an update on the US jobs market, while the Federal Reserve weighs whether more rate hikes are needed to calm rising inflation. .
London, Paris and Frankfurt were down while Shanghai and Tokyo advanced. Oil prices fell back.
Investors were waiting for monthly U.S. employment numbers for possible signs of weakness that could prompt the Fed to decide whether rate hikes needed to be reduced to calm inflation. Other figures suggest the economy is slowing, which should ease pressure for prices to rise.
“The consensus is looking for a softening in the labor market for July,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a report.
In early trade, the FTSE 100 in London was down 0.1% at 7,437.48 and the DAX in Frankfurt was little changed at 13,660.80. The CAC 40 fell 0.5% to 6,483.56 in Paris.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index’s future slipped less than 0.1%, compared to less than 0.1% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 closed 0.1% lower while investors digested corporate earnings reports and waited for jobs data. The Dow lost 0.3% while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4%.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.2% to 3,227.03 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.1% to 20,201.94.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 0.9% to 28,175.897 in June when labor cash earnings rose 2.2% from a year earlier, though forecasters warned the strength was unlikely to last. Most of the increase was due to the semi-annual bonus being paid in June.
In Seoul, the Kospi rose 0.7% to 2,490.80, and Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 rose 0.6% to 7,015.60.
India’s Sensex rose 0.1% to 58,381.11 after Reserve Bank of India raised its benchmark interest rate By half a percentage point to 5.4%. Central bank Sarkar Shaktikanta Das has forecast economic growth of 7.2% and inflation of 6.7% in the year through March.
New Zealand and Bangkok declined while Singapore gained.
Jakarta advanced 0.4% in the latest quarter after Indonesia’s economy grew by 5.4% compared to a year earlier.
Investors worry that inflation at several decade highs by the Fed and other central banks in Europe and Asia to control inflation could derail economic growth.
The Fed has raised its benchmark rate twice this year by 0.75 percentage points, three times its normal margin and the biggest hike since the early 1990s.
Fed officials have tried to quell fears that the United States could be headed for a recession by pointing to a stronger job market as the economy could bear higher borrowing costs.
But economists worry that signs of weakness Hiring is starting to take hold, threatening one of the last remaining doubts of the economic might of the United States. Job opportunities are few, and the number of Americans signing up for unemployment benefits is increasing.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans applying for jobless benefits last week rose marginally to 260,000 from 6,000 last week. First-time applications typically reflect layoffs, but forecasters still see the job market as one of the strongest parts of the economy.
Data from earlier this week indicated that the number of new US job openings slipped, but was still near record highs.
In energy markets, benchmark US crude rose 12 cents to $88.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell from $2.12 in the previous session to $88.54. Brent crude, the price base for international trade, rose 14 cents to $94.26 a barrel. It fell by $2.66 to $94.12 in the previous session.
The dollar rose to 133.45 yen from Thursday’s 132.91 yen. The euro declined from $1.0249 to $1.0230.
