Global shares are mostly down following declines on Wall Street, where a drop in Nvidia stock dragged shares down
TOKYO — Global stock markets fell on Friday following a drop on Wall Street, where a drop in Nvidia's stock sent shares lower.
France's CAC 40 fell 0.1% to 7,661.64 and Germany's DAX dropped about 0.2% to 18,227.44. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.3% to 8,251.91.
The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% lower, while the future for the S&P 500 fell 0.2%.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 closed little changed, down less than 0.1% at 38,596.47, after the government reported inflation rose for the first time in three months to 2.5% in May from 2.2% in April.
“We will have another month of data before the next Bank of Japan meeting, which will be closely monitored to determine if markets are leaning towards a possible rate hike in September this year,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG.
The Japanese yen traded at a 34-year low of 158.88 against the US dollar, compared with 158.92 on Thursday.
The US Treasury Department on Thursday put Japan on a watchlist for possible manipulation of its currency, even though its annual report concluded that no major trading partner had manipulated its currency to gain an advantage.
The dollar has remained strong against many other currencies after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates over the past several years to tame inflation. Since Japan has its own benchmark interest rate near zero, this differential has driven down the value of the yen against the dollar, raising concerns in Tokyo about volatility in exchange rates.
China's central bank has tried to stop the weakness in the yuan by raising its value more than expected. The yuan's parity rate was set at 7.1196 against the US dollar. On Thursday it was set at 7.1192. Traders were expecting it to fall further.
The central parity rate is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the interbank market opens each business day.
Chinese technology-related stocks fell after an overnight decline in Nvidia, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropping 1.7% to 18,028.52, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.2% to 2,998.14.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to 7,796.00. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.8% to 2,784.26.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 declined 0.3% from its all-time high ahead of Wednesday's holiday for financial markets. The Nasdaq Composite also retreated from its record, losing 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average outpaced the market, gaining 0.8%.
Nvidia lost an early lead and fell 3.5%, threatening an eight-week winning streak. The company’s computer chips are helping power the move into AI, which supporters see producing explosive growth in productivity and profits, and it’s already up 164% this year after more than tripling last year.
In other deals on Friday morning, the price of benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 6 cents to $81.23 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 11 cents to $85.60 a barrel.
The euro fell to $1.0687 from $1.0702.