Stocks in Asia closed mixed, while European benchmarks are lower ahead of the Fed meeting minutes
Stocks in Asia were mixed today, as traders weighed the approval of the
Shenzhen-Hong Kong exchange trading link against a
downbeat session on Wall Street.
On the winning side, Japan led the way, as a cooling yen and strong performances from energy stocks guided the Nikkei to a 0.9% gain. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed fractionally higher, although Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.5%. In South Korea, the Kospi gave back 0.2%.
In Europe, stocks are trading lower at midday, following Tuesday's Fed chatter and fresh economic data out of the U.K. Specifically, yesterday's downturn in U.S. equities due to
hawkish Fed comments is weighing on investor sentiment ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) July meeting minutes, due out later today. This is taking precedent over strong job numbers out of the U.K., where data showed the number of jobless claims unexpectedly fell in July, the unemployment rate held steady, and wages grew.
Looking at the indexes, Germany's DAX is the biggest loser so far, sliding 1.1%. The French CAC 40 has given back 0.7%, and London's FTSE 100 is down 0.2%.
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