Stock Markets Today: Global Markets Lower Ahead of US Gains

BEIJING (AP) Global stocks and Wall Street futures fell Tuesday as investors waited for US earnings reports and an update on economic growth.

London and Frankfurt opened lower. Shanghai and Hong Kong fell while Tokyo advanced. Oil prices had changed little.

Some 170 of the largest US companies, including Microsoft and Amazon, will report their results this week. On Monday, the Wall Streets benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.1% after Coca-Cola Co.’s quarterly profit. was better than expected.

Also this week, US data is expected to show economic growth slowing after rate hikes to cool stubbornly high inflation. France and Germany will also report economic growth after surveys showed factory activity weakened.

As the economy cools, technology stocks will struggle to maintain high prices that have helped prop up the market, Oanda’s Edward Moya said in a report. He said stocks are at great risk from corporate earnings and a battle in Washington over raising the government debt limit.

In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London fell 0.4% to 7,880.69 and the DAX in Frankfurt lost 0.3% to 15,811.08. The CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.8% to 7,517.41.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 futures were down 0.5%. That was 0.4% lower for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

On Monday, the Dow rose 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.8% to 3,264.87 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained less than 0.1% to 28,620.07. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 1.9% to 19,578.20.

The Kospi in Seoul fell 1.4% to 2,489.02 after South Korea reported unexpectedly strong economic growth in the first quarter, avoiding a technical recession. Korean economic activity has grown by 0.3% over the past three months, following a contraction of 0.4%.

Indias Sensex rose less than 0.1% to 60,105.07. Singapore and Bangkok fell. Markets in New Zealand and Australia were closed for a holiday.

Analysts expect companies in the S&P 500 to report their biggest drop in earnings since spring 2020, when the pandemic crippled the economy. Most companies have beaten forecasts so far this earnings reporting season.

Wall Street is also waiting for the first estimate of how fast the US economy grew in the first three months of the year. Economists expect growth to slow to 1.9% year on year, down from 2.6% in the last quarter of 2022.

Higher rates have slowed US home sales by making mortgages more expensive. Industry and other sectors of the economy have also suffered, while the labor market has remained resilient.

The Federal Reserve meets next week. Much of Wall Street expects the Federal Reserve to raise rates at least one more time before pausing. Many traders are betting that the Fed will cut rates later this year to support the economy. But Fed officials have insisted they will keep rates high at least through the end of this year.

In the energy markets, benchmark US crude lost 7 cents to $78.69 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 89 cents to $78.76 on Monday. Brent crude, the price base for international oil trade, added 6 cents to $82.60 a barrel in London. It rose $1.07 during the previous session to $82.73.

The dollar fell to 134.13 yen from 134.27 yen on Monday. The euro fell from $1.1046 to $1.1035.