11 Jul 2013

Wall St flat, European markets down

8:44 am on 11 July 2013

Wall Street ended mostly flat on Wednesday as investors tried to gauge when the Federal Reserve may scale back its economic stimulus.

The Dow Jones index slipped 0.06%, to end at 15,292.

The Standard Poor's 500 Index inched up to 1,653. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 3,521.

Earlier, the FTSE in London closed down 0.12%, the DAX in Frankfurt closed down 0.11% and the CAC-40 in France closed down 0.08%.

The Australian 200 Index closed up 0.4%, at 4,901, but weaker trade figures from China wiped out earlier gains.

However, the NZX50 rose for a fifth consecutive trading day at 4,457 on Wednesday.

Among the rising stocks were Auckland International Airport Ltd and Xero. Michael Hill International, Kathmandu and Chorus fell.

At 8.30am on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at around 78 US cents, 85.57 Australian cents. But it fell against the pound, the euro and the yen. The Trade Weighted Index was at 75.16.

Brent crude oil was trading at $US109 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1261 per ounce.