Stock Markets Today: Global Stocks Fall Ahead of US Data

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BEIJING (AP) Global stocks and Wall Street futures fell on Monday ahead of a U.S. economic update expected to show slowing growth.

London and Frankfurt opened lower. Shanghai and Hong Kong fell while Tokyo advanced. Oil prices have fallen.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.1% on Friday but ended a slight loss for the week.

US data this week is expected to show that first-quarter economic growth weakened on the back of interest rate hikes to cool business activity and inflation. This could encourage the Federal Reserve to postpone or cut other possible rate hikes at its May meeting.

France and Germany are also reporting economic growth this week following surveys that show a decline in European factory activity.

There is no doubt that the global economy is weakening and vulnerable to a further downturn, Clifford Bennett of ACY Securities said in a report.

In early trading, the FTSE in London fell 0.2% to 7,901.22 and the DAX in Frankfurt opened down 0.1% to 15,860.34. The CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.3% to 7,558.20.

On Wall Street, the future of the benchmark S&P 500 was down 0.4%. That of the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.3% lower.

On Friday, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones rose 0.1% as investors focused on corporate earnings and forecasts.

Healthcare companies and consumer product makers gained ground, offsetting losses in banks, technology stocks and elsewhere. Truist Financial and KeyCorp, two of the largest regional banks, were among the biggest decliners in the S&P 500. Truist fell 6% and KeyCorp ended down 3.7%.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.8% to 3,275.41 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 0.1% to 28,593.52. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.6% to 19,959.94.

Seoul’s Kospi fell 0.8% to 2,523.50 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 lost less than 0.1% to 7,322.00.

Indias Sensex advanced 0.5% to 59,965.24. New Zealand and Singapore advanced while Bangkok fell.

Forecasters expect Thursday’s data to show U.S. economic growth slowed to 2% in the first three months of 2023 from 2.6% in the final quarter of last year.

Traders are watching whether the Fed and other central banks can contain inflation that was near multi-decade highs without tipping the global economy into recession. The Fed is expected to raise its key rate once more at its May meeting, then take a break.

US companies beat profit forecasts. Analysts had expected the biggest drop in earnings per share for the S&P 500 since the pandemic knocked out the economy in 2020. Analysts polled by FactSet expect earnings to contract 6.3% for S&P 500 companies.

Coca-Cola reports results on Monday, followed by Alphabet, the parent company of McDonalds and Google, on Tuesday.

Aircraft maker Boeing and Facebook parent Meta Platforms reported Wednesday. Investors get details on the health of the airline industry when American Airlines and Southwest Airlines report Thursday, along with internet retail giant Amazon.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude fell 13 cents to $77.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 50 cents on Friday to $77.87. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trade, fell 20 cents to $81.26 a barrel in London. It gained 56 cents the previous session to $81.66.

The dollar gained 134.33 yen from 134.21 yen on Friday. The euro fell from $1.0977 to $1.0992.

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