International News

NEW YORK, (APP/AFP) – European and US stocks slid on Friday as
traders booked profits while the momentum from the previous week petered out in the absence of fresh market-moving news.
While most Asian markets were cautious, Tokyo’s main index managed to
rise as the yen eased, supporting export stocks like automakers sensitive to the currency’s recent strengthening.
In New York the S&P 500 gave up 0.1 percent and the Dow Jones
Industrial Average 0.2 percent in listless trading.
US bourses were joined by a new public exchange, IEX, which opened
with a built-in “speed bump” designed to prevent high-speed traders that dominate the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange action from cutting in front of other orders to move prices against them.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index closed down 0.15 percent, while in
the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 shed 0.5 percent and the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.8 percent.
“In light of an almost empty economic calendar today more of the same
trading pattern appears likely… with the occasional round of profit-taking,” said City of London Markets trader Markus Huber.
Oil prices were mostly higher, holding up the gains of early in the
week amid continued hopes that OPEC and Russia will move to limit production in a coming meeting.
Brent North Sea crude slip just a cent to $50.88 a barrel, while US
benchmark West Texas Intermediate gained 22 cents at $49.11 a barrel.