New York (AFP): Global indexes mostly dipped on Thursday, capping off a lackluster month of growth for markets around the world. European stocks mostly slipped, as did major Asian markets with the exception of Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, which rose on renewed confidence in manufacturing stocks after auto giant Toyota posted strong earnings results.
Wall Street stumbled to end Thursday’s session, with the Dow and S&P 500 both falling as traders digested the latest inflation numbers and looked ahead to jobs data that could prove crucial to future interest rate decisions.
A small rally on Thursday failed to save the Nasdaq from seeing its worst month of the year, while the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 also saw a disappointing month overall. Both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have adopted a more data-dependent approach on whether to increase interest rates further.
That made the latest inflation data all the more important ahead of the next monetary policy meetings due in September. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, rose to a 3.3 percent annual increase in July, up from 3.0 percent in June. Thursday’s data was “probably widely viewed as just fine,” Craig Erlam of the OANDA trading platform told AFP.
“It’s good enough for now but there’s still a lot of improvement needed over the coming months,” he added before the Fed can begin relaxing monetary policy. New York – Dow: DOWN 0.5 percent at 34,721.91 points (close) New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.2 percent at 4,507.66 (close) New York – Nasdaq: UP 0.1 percent at 14,034.97 (close) London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 at 7,439.13 (close) Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 15,947.08 (close) Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.7 percent at 7,316.70 (close) EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.4 percent at 4,297.11 (close) Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.9 percent at 32,619.34 (close) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.6 percent at 18,382.06 (close) Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.6 percent at 3,119.88 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0844 from $1.0925 Thursday
