{"id":22001,"date":"2014-08-14T23:55:27","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T15:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=22001"},"modified":"2014-08-14T22:26:56","modified_gmt":"2014-08-14T14:26:56","slug":"world-stock-markets-mostly-lower-after-germanys-economy-contracts-frances-stagnates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/14\/world-stock-markets-mostly-lower-after-germanys-economy-contracts-frances-stagnates\/","title":{"rendered":"World stock markets mostly lower after Germany\u2019s economy contracts, France\u2019s stagnates"},"content":{"rendered":"

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HONG KONG\u2014A contraction in Germany\u2019s economy and stagnation in France dragged on European stocks Thursday while Asian markets ended mixed.<\/p>\n

Keeping score<\/h6>\n

France\u2019s CAC 40 lost 0.4 per cent to 4,176.03 and Germany\u2019s DAX shed 0.4 per cent to 9,164.92. Britain\u2019s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1 per cent to 6,661.95. U.S. shares were set to drift lower, with Dow futures slipping 0.1 per cent to 16,606. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1 per cent to 1,943.60.<\/p>\n

Asia\u2019s day<\/h6>\n

Japan\u2019s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 per cent to close at 15,314.57 and Australia\u2019s S&P\/ASX 200 ended 0.6 per cent higher at 5,548.50. South Korea\u2019s Kospi was practically unchanged at 2,063.22. But Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng lost 0.4 per cent to 24,801.36, after swinging between gains and losses for most of the day. The Shanghai Composite in mainland China followed the same pattern, down 0.7 per cent to 2,206.47.<\/p>\n

Europe sags<\/h6>\n

The latest growth figures from two major economies cast doubt over Europe\u2019s recovery. The Germany economy lost momentum, shrinking by 0.2 per cent in the April-June period, while the French economy stagnated for second straight quarter, official reports showed.<\/p>\n

China economy<\/h6>\n

Benchmarks in Hong Kong and Shanghai declined a day after disappointing data on the Chinese economy left investors fretting that authorities in Beijing were comfortable with slowing growth and would refrain from further stimulus. Fixed investment and industrial production for July slowed, though the big surprise was the sharp drop in loan growth, which Rabobank analyst Michael Every called \u201cshockingly low.\u201d<\/p>\n

PC profits<\/h6>\n

No. 1 personal computer maker Lenovo Group failed to hold on to gains after reporting quarterly profit rose 23 per cent on stronger sales of smartphones and other mobile devices, with shares down 1.6 per cent. China Mobile, the world\u2019s biggest wireless carrier by subscribers, rose 0.7 per cent even as the state-owned company reported first half profit fell 8.5 per cent as it continued to roll out fourth-generation phone service.<\/p>\n

US cues<\/h6>\n

Investors are looking ahead to more hints on the health of the global economy with the release of U.S. unemployment benefit applications later Thursday. They come a day after U.S. retail sales edged up a tiny amount compared with the month before, fueling hopes that the Fed will maintain stimulus.<\/p>\n

Energy<\/h6>\n

Benchmark crude oil for September delivery was down 27 cents to $97.31 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 60 cents to $104.46 in London.<\/p>\n

Currencies<\/h6>\n

The euro rose to $1.3380 from $1.3365 in late trading Thursday. The dollar was little changed at 102.41 yen from 102.42 yen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONG KONG\u2014A contraction in Germany\u2019s economy and stagnation in France dragged on European stocks Thursday while Asian markets ended mixed. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":22011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stock-markets","mauthors-kelvin-chan","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}