Global stocks lower but Wall Street on a high

Beijing: Global stock markets and US futures were mostly lower on Friday after Wall Street hit a new high on optimism over economic stimulus and coronavirus vaccine development despite a spike in US unemployment claims.

Markets in Shanghai, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced while London opened higher. Overnight, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index gained for a third day on optimism about progress in Washington toward a new economic aid package while the government reported the highest level of new jobless claims in three months. Market action suggested investors see "bad data is good news" for progress toward a stimulus, Mizuho Bank said in a report. Also Friday, Japan's central bank extended an emergency loan program by six months and left monetary policy unchanged, as expected.

In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.1 per cent to 6,556.19 while the DAX in Frankfurt shed 0.2 per cent to 13,645.27. The CAC 40 in France sank 0.2 per cent to 5,537.04. On Wall Street, the future for the S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 0.2 per cent.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent and the Dow gained 0.5 per cent. The Nasdaq added 0.8 per cent. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3 per cent to 3,394.90 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 0.2 per cent to 26,763.39.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 0.7 per cent to 26,498.60.