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Global stocks mixed ahead of Fed meeting as German growth stalls
TOKYO (AP) — Global stocks were mixed Tuesday ahead of key central bank meetings around the world, including Germany reported that its economy contracted in the last quarter.
The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are holding monetary policy meetings this week.
Gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, grew 0.3 percent in the second quarter in the 20 countries that use the euro, according to official figures released Tuesday by the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat.
But Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy, saw output fall by 0.1%.
France’s CAC 40 rose 0.3% in early trading to 7,468.36, while Germany’s DAX added 0.4% to 18,387.13. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5% to 8,254.55. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both rose 0.1%.
In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index reversed earlier losses to rise 0.2% to close at 38,525.95. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5% to 7,953.20. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1% to 2,738.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4% to 17,002.91, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.4% to 2,879.30.
“Markets may be struggling to position this week’s central bank meetings,” Jing Yi Tan of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.
In Japan, the government reported that the country’s unemployment rate in June stood at 2.5%, down from 2.6% the previous month and marking the first improvement in five months.
On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.1%.
Several of Wall Street’s biggest names are due to report earnings later this week: Microsoft on Tuesday, Meta Platforms on Wednesday and Apple and Amazon on Thursday. Their stock moves carry extra weight on Wall Street because they are among the biggest in the market by total value.
These Big Tech stocks have driven the S&P 500 to dozens of records this year, in part because of investors frenzy around artificial intelligence technology, but they lost momentum this month amid criticism that they had become too expensive and alternatives began to look more attractive. Last week, investors were met with earnings reports from Tesla It is Alphabet disappointing, raising concerns that other stocks in what is known as the “Magnificent Seven” group of Big Tech stocks could also fail to impress.
The Fed will hold a policy meeting on interest rates this week, with an announcement due on Wednesday. Virtually no one expects a change then, but the widespread expectation is that it will begin easing at its next meeting in September.
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In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost 21 cents to $75.60 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 23 cents to $79.55.
In currency trading, the US dollar rose to 154.82 Japanese yen from 154.00 yen. The euro cost $1.0833, up from $1.0826.