Mixed trend in global mkts

Tokyo: World shares and US futures were mostly higher Monday, bouncing back from losses last week on Wall Street.

Stocks rose in London, Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai but fell in Hong Kong, where a Financial Times report that Chinese regulators want to break up the mammoth e-commerce payments platform Alipay dragged shares in Alibaba Group Holding nearly 4.3per cent lower. The company said it had no comment on the report. Japan reported its wholesale prices were near a 13-year high in August, adding to concerns over inflation as the country prepares for a leadership transition. Prices have surged in the world's three largest economies, and elsewhere, as supply chain troubles, shipping bottlenecks and other disruptions arising from the pandemic have hindered a return to normal growth. But Tokyo and most other major markets logged gains after opening lower.

Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.4per cent to 7,058.13, while the DAX in Germany climbed 0.7per cent to 15,713.86. In Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.5per cent to 6,694.92. The future for the Dow industrials was up 0.5per cent while that for the S&P 500 picked up 0.4per cent. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was steady at 1.33per cent. In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 ended up 0.2per cent at 30,447.37 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong trimmed earlier losses, closing 1.5per cent lower at 25,813.81. In Seoul, the Kospi edged 0.1per cent higher to 3,127.86, while the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.3per cent to 7,425.20. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3per cent to 3,715.37.

"Cautious sentiments largely follow through with the downside move for U.S. markets last week, amid growth concerns along with rising inflationary pressures," Jun Rong Yeap of IG said in a commentary. U.S. inflation at the wholesale level climbed 8.3per cent last month from August 2020, the biggest annual gain since the Labor Department started calculating the 12-month number in 2010. Price pressures add to the likelihood that the Federal Reserve and other central banks might move sooner to nudge interest rates up from the ultra-low levels they have been kept at to help fend off the worst impacts of the pandemic.

Stocks have traded in a narrow range for several weeks as many investors stick to the sidelines waiting to get a fuller understanding of where the economy is headed and how the pandemic is impacting businesses. On Friday, stocks pulled back and the S&P 500 lost 0.8per cent to 4,458.58 in its fifth straight decline, ending 1.7per cent lower for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.8per cent to 34,607.72. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite sank 0.9per cent, to 15,115.49. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gave up 1per cent, to 2,227.55. Federal Reserve policymakers have said they believe inflation will be transient, as the economy recovers from the pandemic.