This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Seoul, South Korea • Global stock markets were uneven Wednesday as investors waited for a European Central Bank meeting where further stimulus was expected to be announced, as well as a key speech by the head of the Federal Reserve.
KEEPING SCORE: European benchmarks opened slightly higher. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.5 percent to 6,424.16. Germany's DAX shed 0.4 percent to 11,211.32 and France's CAC 40 dropped 0.3 percent to 4,901.56. Futures showed that Wall Street was set for a flat opening, with Dow and S&P 500 futures unchanged.
EUROPE STIMULUS: Investors expect the European Central Bank will expand its stimulus program when policymakers meet on Thursday, either by extending its bond-buying program beyond the current end date of September 2016 or by increasing the purchase amount. Investors are also expecting an interest rate cut. ECB head Mario Draghi signaled that action is coming this week as the bank seeks to support growth and push inflation higher. Figures released Wednesday showing eurozone inflation remained at a disappointingly low 0.1 percent cemented the case for more stimulus.
US RATES: Investors are also keyed into Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen's speech set for Wednesday, as well as the November jobs report, scheduled to be released on Friday, which comes shortly before the Fed's two-day policy meeting. Unless the November employment figures are extraordinarily weak, investors believe the Fed will raise interest rates from a record low this month for the first time since the financial crisis.
MIXED DATA: U.S. factory activity dropped last month to the lowest level since June 2009, the Institute for Supply Management said, as a strong dollar and low oil prices cut new orders and hurt production. But in Asia, other economic data encouraged investors. Australia reported a better-than-expected growth rate for the third quarter. Its economy expanded 2.5 percent during the three-month period from over a year earlier.
ASIA'S DAY: Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4 percent to 19,938.13 and South Korea's Kospi fell 0.7 percent to 2,009.29. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.2 percent to 5,258.30. But the Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.3 percent to 3,536.91 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.4 percent to 22,479.69. Markets in Southeast Asia were mixed.
ANALYST'S TAKE: "Despite the strong performance of U.S. equities, Asian markets got off to a rocky start," Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at IG, said in a report. He said the weak U.S. factory data "threw some questions up around the inevitability of the December Fed rate hike" but Australia's growth numbers helped markets reduce their losses.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was down 1.1 percent to $41.39 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract closed up 20 cents at $41.85 a barrel on Tuesday.
CURRENCIES: The U.S. dollar strengthened to 123.13 yen from its previous close of 122.90 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0603 from $1.0629 after the weak inflation data.