By Canadian Press

World shares mostly higher, defying Facebook-led tech slump

Jul 27, 2018 | 1:30 AM

BANGKOK — World shares were mostly higher Friday as investors shrugged off Facebook’s nearly $120 billion overnight plunge in market value, the biggest-ever one-day loss in dollar value for a U.S. company.

KEEPING SCORE: Germany’s DAX added 0.1 per cent to 12,823.64 and the CAC 40 in France was flat at 5,481.07. Britain’s FTSE 100 picked up 0.3 per cent to 7,682.74. Futures suggested an upbeat start Friday on Wall Street, with the contract for the Dow up 0.1 per cent to 25,548.00 and S&P futures up less than 0.1 per cent at 2,843.70.

ASIA’S DAY: Japan’s Nikkei 225 index added 0.6 per cent to 22,712.75 and the Kospi in South Korea picked up 0.3 per cent to 2,294.99. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3 per cent to 2,873.59 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index edged 0.1 per cent lower to 28,757.20. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 jumped 0.9 per cent to 6,300.20. Shares gained in Taiwan and Indonesia but were lower in Singapore.

WALL STREET: Facebook’s tumble, brought on by its warning to investors that it sees slower revenue growth ahead, led a decline in technology shares that snapped a three-day winning streak for the S&P 500 index. It lost 0.3 per cent to 2,837.44. The Nasdaq composite index, which is heavily weighted with technology companies, lost 80.05 points, or 1 per cent, to 7,852.18. But broader gains in industrial, energy and consumer goods companies helped offset those losses for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which advanced 0.4 per cent to 25,527.07. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gained 0.6 per cent to 1,695.36. More stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange.

TRADE: The agreement between President Donald Trump and a European delegation to work on a pact to dismantle trade barrier inspired fresh optimism among investors that trade tensions between the U.S and European Union may be on the mend. But it’s worrying for Asian trading partners, especially China, which could lose leverage with Washington in its own disputes, especially over its imports of soybeans.

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JAPAN: The Bank of Japan is due to hold a policy meeting early next week that some analysts believe could bring at least minor changes to the longstanding ultra-lax monetary policy for the world’s third-largest economy. Sustained relatively strong growth has raised expectations that the central bank may need to consider further tempering its massive purchases of government bonds and other assets.

ANALYST’S VIEWPOINT: “The Bank of Japan has a mandate to focus on financial stability as well as inflation. Some argue that sustained ultra-loose policy could generate unwelcome financial risks and so it should be reversed even if inflation remains well below target,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary. But he added, “it would take far more than a further few months of stronger wage or inflation data to convince us that a change in stance was a possibility in the next couple of years.”

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude lost 31 cents to $69.30 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It picked up 31 cents to settle at $69.61 per barrel on Thursday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, dropped 33 cents to $74.79.

CURRENCIES: The dollar slipped to 111.14 yen from 111.23 yen on Thursday. The euro fell to $1.1629 from $1.1645.

Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

World shares mostly higher, defying Facebook-led tech slump

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