World shares are mostly lower after Wall St retreats following economic updates

Hong Kong, Aug 27 (AP) World shares were mostly lower Thursday following modest losses on Wall Street, while oil prices declined.

In premarket trading, Nvidia’s shares jumped 7.2 per cent after its latest quarterly earnings, released Wednesday after markets closed, beat Wall Street’s expectations thanks to strong demand for its advanced artificial intelligence chips.

In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.5 per cent to 10,823.29. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.8 per cent to 8,397.53, while Germany’s DAX edged 0.2 per cent higher to 26,346.27.

The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.5 per cent, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was nearly unchanged.

During the Asian day, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2 per cent to 66,131.98. Multinational

investment holding firm SoftBank Group, which invests in OpenAI and many other technology companies, gained 0.7 per cent.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.5 per cent to 6,912.37 as shares of market heavyweight Samsung Electronics gained 1.7 per cent.

Japan’s and South Korea’s stock markets have been among the biggest beneficiaries from the global AI frenzy, alongside Taiwan’s market, where the benchmark Taiex index added 0.3 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.3 per cent to 25,565.74. The Shanghai Composite index rose 1.1 per cent to 3,956.57.

China reported that growth in industrial profits slowed in July to 11.2 per cent, down from 15.1 per cent in June.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 1 per cent lower at 9,038.20.

India’s Sensex was down 0.4 per cent.

On Wednesday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 per cent but was still near its record high levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2 per cent, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dipped 0.1 per cent.

Nvidia, one of the world’s most valuable companies, reported that its revenue for the May-July quarter more than doubled from the year before.

Its earnings results are widely seen as a bellwether for the broader AI and chips industry, and big investments by tech giants in AI have sparked concerns among many investors over an AI bubble. The worry is that the companies may not generate enough profits within an expected timeframe to justify rising costs.

Outside of earnings reports, Meta Platforms added 1.1 per cent after agreeing to pay up to USD 18 billion and to add child-safety measures to Facebook and Instagram to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by states across the country.

Data released Wednesday showed the US economy grew at a 1.5 per cent pace in the April-June period, according to a revised estimate.

The inflation measure the Federal Reserve has historically preferred to use sat at 3.7 per cent last month, the same rate as in June. That is slightly worse than the 3.6 per cent that economists expected, according to FactSet and far above the Fed’s 2 per cent goal.

In other dealings early Thursday, Brent crude, the international standard, edged down 0.1 per cent to USD 86.83 per barrel. It was trading at around USD 72 a barrel in late February before the war in Iran began.

Benchmark US crude fell 0.2 per cent to USD 82.04 per barrel.

The US dollar rose to 159.41 Japanese yen from 159.31 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.1646, down from USD 1.1651. (AP) SKS SKS