Global stocks mixed as investors eye corporate earnings
BEIJING (AP) - Global stock markets were mixed Tuesday as investors monitor corporate earnings, while oil prices extended losses, weighing on energy company shares.
KEEPING SCORE: France's CAC-40 was down almost 0.1 percent to 4,387 and Germany's DAX rose 0.3 percent to 10,229. London's FTSE 100 gained 0.2 percent to 6,724. On Wall Street, Standard & Poor's 500 futures were flat while Dow Jones futures were down 0.1 percent.
EARNINGS: Investors will be keeping an eye out for quarterly earnings reports from Apple and Twitter. The concern is that both will struggle to sustain the growth of past years, with Apple looking for new ways to make revenue as sales of iPhones are expected to fall for the second quarter in a row. In other reports, McDonald's saw its sales rise less than expected and its shares were down 3 percent in pre-market trading. By contrast, chemical maker DuPont topped most expectations in its earnings and it raised its profit outlook for the year.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell another 56 cents to $42.57 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, addin to the 94 cents it lost Monday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 40 cents to $44.32 after falling 97 cents during the previous session. The steady drop in oil in recent days has weighed on oil and commodity stocks.
ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.1 percent to 3,050.17 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.6 percent to 22,129.73. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 1.4 percent to 16,383.04. Benchmarks in South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia gained. Sydney's S&P ASX 200 was flat at 5,537.50 and India's Sensex also was unchanged at 28,108.28. New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand declined.
CENTRAL BANK WATCH: The Bank of Japan and the U.S. Federal Reserve are due to hold policy meetings this week. With Japan's economy barely growing, economists are speculating about whether its central bank may push interest rates lower into negative territory when it announces its decision Friday. The U.S. economy is in better shape than other advanced economies, but expectations are the Fed will hold interest rates steady.
CURRENCY: The dollar declined to 104.41 yen from Monday's 105.70. The euro edged down to $1.0987 from $1.0994.