Stocks Stumble After Winning Streak --2nd Update
August 17 2017 - 9:11AM
Dow Jones News
By Justin Yang and Ese Erheriene
-- Wall Street futures point to a lower open
-- Technology shares gain in Asia
-- Europe markets fall ahead of ECB minutes
The week's equities rebound slowed Thursday, as global
benchmarks were mixed following the release of central-bank minutes
in the U.S. and Europe.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.2% after a brief upward swing,
while futures signaled the S&P 500 will open 0.2% lower.
The European Central Bank said in its minutes from its last
meeting that inflation still needed to show "convincing signs of a
pickup."
Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's July meeting were also
on the minds of global investors Thursday after it showed
disagreement over the timeline for future interest-rate increases
in the U.S.
Despite the divisions in the Fed minutes, they still showed
agreement over the central bank's plan to soon begin winding down
its balance sheet.
"Now that the economy is in a good place with healthy growth and
a labor market, the Fed's taken the view the 10-year yield should
be a little bit higher," said Mike Bell, global market strategist
at JPMorgan Asset Management.
The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.243%
Thursday from 2.224% Wednesday, according to data from
Tradeweb.
In U.S. premarket trading, Cisco Systems Inc. fell 2.5%. The
technology company was one of the worst performers after reporting
that its revenue fell.
In Asia, technology-heavy markets in Taiwan and South Korea
advanced. Samsung Electronics climbed 1.8% and some Taiwanese tech
stocks made similar advances.
The region's biggest tech company, Tencent, rose 1.9% following
stronger-than-expected second-quarter results. Even so, sliding
financial and property stocks kept Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng
pressured, down 0.2%.
Along with geopolitical concerns, the prospect of monetary
tightening in developed markets has been a factor in cooling
foreign buying of Asian stocks, said Khoon Goh, ANZ's head of Asia
research, noting that foreigners have pulled a net $2.8 billion
from the region's equity markets, excluding China, this month.
The dollar softened overnight as the market digested the Fed
minutes, a decline that continued during Asian trading. The WSJ
Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of
currencies, on Thursday was up 0.2%.
The dollar's earlier decline pressured stocks in Japan, with the
Nikkei down 0.1%.
Concerns about a stronger yen's impact on Japan's exporters -- a
major part of the country's economy -- send exporters' stocks and
often the broader market lower when the currency records even
moderate gains. But data out Thursday showed Japan's July exports
were up 13% from a year earlier, the eighth straight monthly
increase.
--Kenan Machado contributed to this article.
Write to Ese Erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 17, 2017 08:56 ET (12:56 GMT)
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