Stock market today: global stocks fall on economic concerns

TOKYO (AP) Global stock prices were mostly lower on Wednesday as concerns over the global economy flared following a fall on Wall Street despite some better-than-expected earnings reports.

The French CAC 40 lost 0.6% in early trading to 7,489.17, while the German DAX fell 0.5% to 15,799.39. The UK FTSE 100 fell 0.3% to 7,869.14. But US stocks would rise with Dow futures rising 0.1% at 7,869.14. S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% to 4,109.75.

Oil prices rose.

From a banking crisis still hovering just below the surface, to the realization that Russia has long-range missiles that are incredibly accurate and no one can stop, to the soaring tensions between China and the US.more sanctions against both Russia and China, and the likely further unraveling of world trade and the reemergence of higher inflation, the risks are huge, Clifford Bennett, chief economist at ACY Securities, said in a commentary.

None of this paints a pretty picture. Yet this is the reality of the present moment, he said.

In Asian trading, the Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.7% to finish at 28,416.47. The Australian S&P/ASX 200 fell almost 0.1% to 7,316.30. The South Korean Kospi fell 0.2% to 2,484.83. The Hong Kong Hang Seng gained 0.7% to 19,757.27, while the Shanghai Composite changed little at 3,264.10.

The shares of the Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. fell 0.7% after the company announced plans to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 1.6% on Tuesday, breaking out of a weeks-long lull. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%, while the Nasdaq index fell 2% to 11,799.16.

Earnings reported in the US have so far beat economists’ modest expectations.

Looking ahead, forecasts are for the worst drop in S&P 500 earnings since spring 2020, when the pandemic froze the global economy. So Wall Street is as much, if not more, focused on what companies are saying about their future prospects than what they are saying about the past three months.

High interest rates, designed to control inflation, put the brakes on the entire economy and depressed investment prices. Large parts of the economy, aside from employment, are already starting to slow or contract.

A report Tuesday showed consumer confidence was falling stronger than expected in April, to the lowest level since July. That’s a discouraging signal when consumer spending makes up the bulk of the U.S. economy.

The Federal Reserve meets next week and may raise rates at least one more time before pausing.

In energy trading, US crude added 39 cents to $77.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent oil, the international standard, rose 21 cents to $80.98 a barrel.

In currency trading, the US dollar fell from 133.72 yen to 133.55 Japanese yen. The euro was priced at $1.1035, up from $1.0977.