HONG KONG (AP) — World shares and U.S. futures were mixed Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve held rates steady.
Oil prices fell even as U.S. officials warned that renewed military action against Iran could come after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX gained 0.8% to 25,912.10, while the CAC 40 in Paris jumped 1% to 7,983.15. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 10,744.60.
The future for the S&P 500 was 0.4% lower,
while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4%.
In a big week for central bank news, markets are awaiting the outcome of a meeting of the European Central Bank later Thursday. The Bank of Japan is expected to stand pat when it wraps up its policymaking meeting on Friday.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 climbed 1.1% to 64,659.47. OpenAI investor SoftBank Group's shares gained 1.8%.
In South Korea, the Kospi lost 1.2% to 5,937.66.
Samsung Electronics, a key component of the Korean market, sank 4.1% despite announcing strong quarterly results as its latest shareholder return policy arrangements disappointed some investors. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix rose 2.6%. Its shares soared 10.9% the day before on the company’s better-than-expected quarterly results.
The Taiex in Taiwan, which has also benefited from the AI boom, declined 1.4%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.6% to 22,958.65. The Shanghai Composite index declined 0.8% to 3,651.43.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 8,891.80.
India’s Sensex surged 1%.
Earnings reports of U.S. technology giants have shaken markets riding on high expectations from investors due to the global craze for artificial intelligence.
Shares of Google parent company Alphabet Inc. fell about 10% in after-hours trading. The California-based technology giant posted quarterly revenues that disappointed investors, raising questions over whether it can generate enough sales to justify its huge investments in AI.
Shares in Microsoft, however, gained nearly 3% in after-hours trading as it logged better-than-expected earnings results.
On Wednesday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 added 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3%.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury eased to around 5.00% after briefly jumping to around 5.04% Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury also steadied to about 4.69%, down from higher than 4.77% on Wednesday.
In other dealings early Thursday, Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 0.8% to $110.77 per barrel. That's still way higher than the roughly $72 a barrel level it was at before the Iran war began in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell 1.1% to $101.67 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar gained slightly to 157.86 Japanese yen from 157.84 yen. The euro rose to $1.1155 from $1.1154.
