TOKYO\u2014Shares held steady Wednesday as wary investors took heart from modest recoveries from sell-offs the day before, but there wasn\u2019t much bounce to the rebound.<\/p>\n
European shares looked set for a slow start, weighed down by worries over corporate earnings. Britain\u2019s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1 per cent to 6454.10 and the CAC-40 in France barely budged at 4118.53. Germany\u2019s DAX fell 0.2 per cent to 9,106.65.<\/p>\n
The outlook for U.S. markets was wobbly, with Dow futures up 0.1 per cent and S&P 500 futures down 0.03 per cent.<\/p>\n
Although markets stabilized after a 4.2 per cent plunge in Japan\u2019s benchmark Nikkei 225 index to a four-month low, investors remain cautious, said Kwong Man Bun, chief operating officer at KGI Securities in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
\u201cRebound momentum is not significant,\u201d said Kwong. \u201cMarket sentiment remains cautious without a sustainable rebound, it\u2019s just a technical rebound after the heavy sell-off, but funding interest is limited.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nikkei rose 1.2 per cent to 14,180.38 on Wednesday. It opened higher but surrendered some gains after the government reported that wage income remained at a record low in 2013.<\/p>\n
Investors await U.S. jobs data due Friday and a policy meeting Thursday of the European Central Bank, which is under pressure to ease policy further to counter deflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe capital markets are really in a watch-this-space mode right now,\u201d Chris Weston, chief market strategist for IG in Melbourne, Australia, wrote in a commentary Wednesday.<\/p>\n
A key source of uncertainty is mainland China, whose markets remain closed for the Lunar New Year holiday until Friday.<\/p>\n
But the region\u2019s second biggest market, Hong Kong, remained in negative territory. The Hang Seng fell 0.6 per cent to 21,269.38 and shares in Taiwan also fell.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in Asia, shares rose in New Zealand, Indonesia, India, the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0and Thailand but fell in Australia.<\/p>\n
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude for March delivery was up 53 cents at $97.72 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 76 cents to close at $97.19 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The euro edged higher to $1.3522. The dollar fell to 101.29 yen from 101.57 yen late Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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