World stocks are mixed as Japan's Nikkei falls ahead of weekend election

HONG KONG -- European markets opened little connected Friday while Asian stocks mostly advanced. Japan's benchmark declined arsenic investors awaited nan result of an election connected Sunday.

Germany’s DAX dropped 0.1% astatine 19,417.91. In Paris, nan CAC 40 mislaid 0.4% to 7,473.20. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.1% little to 8,258.16. The futures for nan S&P 500 and nan Dow Jones Industrial Average some went up by 0.1%.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who took agency conscionable weeks ago, called nan threat wide predetermination to drum up support arsenic nan ruling Liberal Democrats grapple pinch a governmental backing scandal. For once, nan LDP could beryllium facing a awesome setback that could bring immoderate changes to nan economical outlook, analysts said.

“Polls propose that Japan's ruling party, nan LDP, could suffer its Lower House mostly connected Sunday for nan first clip since its little stint retired of powerfulness ended successful 2012,” Mark Williams of Capital Economics said successful a commentary.

If nan ruling statement fails to unafraid capable support for a ruling conjugation pinch nan Komeito, its longtime partner, “things would look different,” he said.

The caller governmental shifts person added to uncertainty for markets, complicating nan Bank of Japan's efforts to displacement distant from long-standing near-zero liking rates.

Core ostentation successful Japan’s superior was 1.8% successful October, little than nan cardinal bank’s 2% target for nan first clip successful 5 months, nan authorities reported. That reinforced expectations that nan cardinal slope will support its cardinal liking complaint unchanged astatine a argumentation gathering adjacent week.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 scale mislaid 0.6% to 37,913.92, while nan Japanese yen fell against nan U.S. dollar. On Friday, nan dollar was trading astatine 151.99 yen, up from 151.89 yen.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5% to 20,590.15, and nan Shanghai Composite gained 0.6% to 3,299.70.

China’s cardinal slope kept its medium-term lending complaint unchanged astatine 2%. It besides issued 700 cardinal yuan ($98.3 billion) successful one-year medium-term lending installation loans to financial institutions, according to nan bank’s statement.

Elsewhere successful Asia, South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.1% to 2,583.27 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed little than 0.1% to 8,211.30. Taiwan’s Taiex accrued 0.7%.

On Thursday, nan S&P 500 roseate 0.2%, breaking its first three-day losing streak since early September. It bounced betwixt losses and gains done nan day, and it was astir evenly divided betwixt stocks rising and falling.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% and nan Nasdaq composite roseate 0.8%.

Tesla led nan marketplace pinch a jump of 21.9% aft nan electric-vehicle shaper reported better profit for nan latest 4th than analysts expected. An optimistic CEO Elon Musk besides predicted 20%-30% income maturation adjacent year, though gross for nan latest 4th fell short of analysts’ forecasts. It was nan champion time for Tesla’s banal since 2013.

Boeing sank 1.2% aft its machinists voted to continue their strike, which has crippled craft production. More than 60% of national members who voted connected nan projected statement rejected it, keeping them connected nan picket lines six weeks into their strike.

Stocks person broadly retreated this week aft nan S&P 500 and Dow some group records astatine nan extremity of past week. They’ve been wounded by rising Treasury yields successful nan enslaved market, which tin make investors little consenting to salary precocious prices for stocks. Critics had already been saying beforehand that stocks looked excessively costly fixed really overmuch faster their prices person risen than firm profits.

A study connected unemployment claims Thursday offered a mixed image connected nan occupation market. It said less workers applied for unemployment benefits past week, which tin beryllium a awesome of comparatively debased layoffs. But it besides said nan full number of those collecting benefits roseate to its highest level successful almost 3 years.

In different dealings early Friday, benchmark U.S. crude picked up 7 cents to $70.26 a tube successful physics trading connected nan New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, nan world standard, gained 6 cents to $74.09 a barrel.

The euro fell to $1.0825 from $1.0828.