CBC: Asian Markets Lower As China Falls; Europe Gains
TOKYO (AP) ― Asian markets were mostly lower Tuesday as a tumble in Chinese stocks tempered optimism from U.S. aluminum maker Alcoa's earnings. European shares advanced.
A slew of American companies release quarterly results in the coming weeks and Alcoa's result spurred hopes that earnings season will provide reassuring signs of recovery in the world's biggest economy.
But news from China was less encouraging for investors in Asia, with property prices falling for the first time in 18 months — a sign that government tightening measures are having an effect. That's welcome news for policymakers who hope to avoid a property bubble but it has also raised concerns among investors that China's rapid rebound from the global recession could slow.
In Europe, all major benchmarks posted moderate gains. France's CAC-40 rose 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX added 0.5 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 was 0.7 percent higher. Futures augured slight losses on Wall Street. Dow futures were off 12 points, or 0.1 percent, at 10,169.
Earlier in Asia, the Shanghai Composite index retreated 1.6 percent to 2,450.29 as investors sold property developers and banks, which have lent heavily to the property sector. That led to choppy trading in Hong Kong where the Hang Seng index was down 0.2 percent to 20,429.
Chinese housing prices declined 0.1 percent in June from May and the government said it had no plans to ease curbs on property development.
"This is certainly a big damper on the market. But it's actually impossible for the government to drop the policy, while housing prices hardly fell," said Chen Huiqin, an analyst for Huatai Securities in the eastern city of Nanjing.
Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 0.1 percent to 9,537.23 and South Korea's Kospi was hardly changed at 1,735.08.
Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.7 percent to 4,380.30. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and India also fell while markets in Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka rose.
In New York on Monday, stocks finished just slightly higher as investors grew cautious ahead of second-quarter earnings reports.
But they got some good news after trading ended when Alcoa reported upbeat results. The manufacturing giant kicked off earnings season by reporting net income of $136 million, or 13 cents share, for the quarter ending June 30. That compared with a loss of $454 million, or 47 cents a share, a year ago.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.2 percent to 10,216.27. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.1 percent, to 1,078.75, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 1.91, or 0.1 percent, to 2,198.36.
In currencies, the dollar fell to 88.39 yen from 88.63 yen late Monday. The euro slipped to $1.2536 from $1.2591.
Benchmark crude for August delivery was down 56 cents at $74.39 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.14 to settle at $74.95 on Monday.
