WORLD MARKETS
BEIJING—Global stocks fell Monday as investors became more cautious after several market indexes hit record highs in the past week.
KEEPING SCORE: London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent to 7,418 amid concerns about the stability of the country’s government as Brexit talks fail to progress. France’s CAC 40 was 0.9 percent lower at 5,332 and Germany’s DAX shed 0.8 percent to 13,017. On Wall Street, futures for the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which hit a record on Wednesday last week, were both down 0.3 percent.
ASIA’S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 3,447.84 while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.3 percent to 22,380.99. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.2 percent to 29,182.18 and Seoul’s Kospi shed 0.5 percent to 2,530.35. Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 retreated 0.1 percent to 6,021.80 and India’s Sensex lost 0.4 percent to 33,164.85. Benchmarks in New Zealand and Jakarta advanced while Taiwan and Singapore fell.
GE DIVIDEND: General Electric said it is slashing its dividend in half as investors gathered in Boston, where Chairman and CEO John Flannery is expected to lay out a significant retooling of the U.S. conglomerate. GE’s quarterly dividend is being cut to 12 cents per share, from 24 cents, starting next month. Shares in GE were up 2.2 percent in premarket trading.
WEEK AHEAD: Central banker Haruhiko Kuroda of Japan inaugurates a data-heavy week with a speech Monday, followed Tuesday by public comments from Janet Yellen of the United States, Mark Carney of Britain and Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank. The United States reports inflation and retail sales on Wednesday, while Japan reports factory output. U.S. factory output data follow on Thursday.
ANALYST’S TAKE: “We are likely to see October U.S. inflation dipping again (as hurricane effects drop out), confounding thoughts of a medium-term pickup in inflation as the economy tightens further,” Rob Carnell of IG said in a report. “As well as inflation, the week ahead offers glimpses into recent economic growth in the G7. Individual eurozone country GDP figures will start to emerge this week, with the bulk of them likely to support the prevailing view that eurozone growth is pretty strong. Japanese GDP, however, is due a pullback from the 2Q surge.”
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 6 cents to $56.81 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 43 cents on Friday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, shed 7 cents to $63.45 in London. It lost 39 cents the previous session.