World share markets remained pressured and the dollar slipped today as oil prices climbed amid doubts over the real impact of the Iran nuclear deal and renewed political tensions in the East China Sea.
US stocks were little changed during a holiday-abbreviated week as investors found few incentives to extend a rally that has repeatedly taken indices to record peaks.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 19.55 points, or 0.12 percent, at 16,092.09. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 3.72 points, or 0.21 percent, at 1,806.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 23.87 points, or 0.60 percent, at 4,018.45.
European stocks, meanwhile, fell in brisk volumes as corporate profit warnings and lower-than-expected US consumer confidence data spooked investors and kept benchmark indexes within ranges set earlier this month.
Shares in Spanish oil major Repsol bucked the trend, surging 4.3 percent as investors cheered the potential end to a year-long conflict with Argentina over compensation for the nationalisation of Repsol’s stake in YPF.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares lost 0.6 percent to 1,294.03 points, in volumes that were nearly 15 percent larger than the index’s daily average volumes of the past 90 days.
The euro zone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index fell 0.3 percent, to 3,062.62 points.
Following a four-month rally which propelled both the FTSEurofirst 300 and the Euro STOXX 50 to five-year highs, stocks stalled in late October and have moved sideways since.
Meanwhile, Japanese stocks retreated from a 6-month high as a pause in the weak yen trend triggered profit-taking on exporters, which led the market’s recent frenetic rise.
The Nikkei ended 0.7 percent lower at 15,515.24 after climbing to 15,619.13 on the previous day, within sight of a 5-1/2-year peak reached in May. The Topix shed 0.5 percent to 1,253.02.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald