BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets and Wall Street futures declined Tuesday after Chinese exports fell ahead of this week's U.S. inflation update, which might influence Federal Reserve plans for possible interest rate hikes.
London, Shanghai, Paris and Hong Kong retreated. Tokyo advanced. Oil prices lost more than $1 per barrel.
On Monday, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index rallied 0.9%, recovering one-third of a loss from last week.
“U.S. stocks started the week in better form,” said ING analysts in a report. “It is not clear that this is going to last, though.”
In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.4% to 7,528.15. The CAC 40 in Paris gave up 0.4% to 7,288.73, and the DAX in Frankfurt shed 0.5% 15,884.94.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 future was off 0.3%, and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2%.
The Dow rose 1.2% and the Nasdaq composite added 0.6% on Monday.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2% to 3,260.61 after Chinese exports fell 14.5% from a year earlier in July, adding to pressure on Beijing to reverse an economic slump. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 1.8% to 19,184.17.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 0.4% to 32,277.29 after official data showed labor cash earnings rose 2.3% in June.
The Kospi in Seoul lost 0.3% to 2,573.98, and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 gained less than 0.1% to 7,311.10.
India's Sensex opened up 0.1% at 65,872.98. New Zealand, Bangkok and Jakarta retreated while Singapore rose.
U.S. corporate profits have mostly beat forecasts for the April-June period. Nearly four out of five companies in the S&P 500 have topped expectations so far, according to FactSet. But they’re still on track to report their sharpest drop in profit since summer 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic pummeled the global economy.
Investors hope Thursday's U.S. inflation data will help to persuade the Fed that upward pressure on prices is under control and no more rate hikes are needed.
Forecasters expect Thursday’s data to show consumer prices rose by 3.3% in July over a year ago, an acceleration from June's 3%.
Inflation has gradually declined since soaring to a two-decade high above 9% last year.
Some forecasters warn traders are assuming too early that rate hikes are finished and the Fed can achieve a “soft landing” of extinguishing inflation without tipping the world's biggest economy into a recession.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.05 to $80.89 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 88 cents on Monday to $81.94.
Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, declined $1.12 to $84.22 per barrel in London. It lost 90 cents the previous session to $85.34.
The dollar rose to 143.08 yen from Monday's 142.44 yen. The euro declined to $1.0984 from $1.1007.
