Global shares mixed following Wall Street losses
By ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press
Aug 16, 2018 4:01 AM CDT
A man sits in front of an electronic board displaying stock prices at a brokerage house in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. Asian shares are falling as investors fret over slowing economic growth, especially in China. Technology stocks and oil and metals prices skidded overnight on Wall Street.(AP...   (Associated Press)

TOKYO (AP) — Shares are higher in early European trading after a downbeat day in Asia. Benchmarks in Germany and France rose Thursday while shares in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong declined.

KEEPING SCORE: Germany's DAX added 0.3 percent to 12,200.93 and in France the CAC 40 advanced 0.4 percent to 5,326.27. Britain's FTSE 100 climbed 0.6 percent to 7,541.12. The futures contract for the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.4 percent while the contract for the S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent.

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.1 percent to 22,192.04 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.8 percent to 27,100.06. The Shanghai Composite index sank 0.7 percent to 2,705.19. South Korea's Kospi reopened from a holiday and tumbled 0.8 percent to 2,240.80. Australia's S&P ASX 200 was flat at 6,328.30. Shares fell in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

WALL STREET'S SLIDE: Large technology companies such as Alibaba and Baidu of China and U.S. tech giants including Facebook and Microsoft fell. The S&P 500 declined 0.8 percent to 2,818.37. Earlier it lost as much as 1.3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.5 percent to 25,162.41. The Nasdaq composite dropped 1.2 percent to 7,774.12. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks sank 1.3 percent to 1,670.67.

TENCENT SURPRISE: An unexpected drop in profits for Chinese tech giant Tencent rattled investors, adding to recent concerns about the health of China's economy. Tencent, a gaming and messaging company, is the most valuable technology company in China. Jefferies & Co. analyst Karen Chan said Tencent's revenue was also disappointing, mostly because of weak results from its mobile gaming business. Tencent's stock fell 3.0 percent in Hong Kong on Thursday.

CHINA TRADE: In a rare sign of progress, Beijing said it was sending a trade envoy to Washington in renewed efforts to resolve the worsening tariff dispute with the Trump administration. The delegation led by a deputy commerce minister will visit in late August to discuss "issues of mutual concern," the Commerce Ministry said, giving no details of a possible agenda. The two governments are poised to impose a new round of tariff hikes on $16 billion of each other's goods next week in their worsening conflict over Beijing's technology policy.

TURKEY'S TROUBLES: The Turkish lira rebounded from record losses after Qatar pledged $15 billion in investments to help Turkey's economy. The currency strengthened some 2 percent against the dollar, trading at around 5.85 per dollar, hours before Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak was scheduled to update international investors about the economy. Turkey's woes have shaken currencies of other developing economies: India's rupee was trading at new record lows of around 70.31 to the dollar.

ENERGY: U.S. crude stabilized, adding 2 cents to $65.03 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It sagged 3 percent to $65.01 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, picked up 4 cents to $70.80 per barrel. It had lost 2.3 percent to $70.76 a barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 110.81 yen from 110.72 yen. The euro rose to $1.1378 from $1.1346.

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