World shares were mixed on Friday after an official survey showed Chinese factory activity weakening in May on slowing export orders.
U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices slipped ahead of an OPEC meeting this weekend.
Technology-related shares saw some of the biggest declines after Nvidia, recently a market favorite thanks to Wall Street’s frenzy over artificial-intelligence technology, sank 3.8% on Thursday.
European markets opened modestly higher, with the CAC 40 in Paris up 0.1% at 7,986.65. The FTSE 100 gained 0.4% to 8,259.68, while Germany’s DAX was almost flat at 18,500.20.
The future for the S&P 500 was 0.1% lower while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was virtually unchanged.
Friday will bring a monthly update on a gauge of inflation that the Federal Reserve prefers to use. The tail end of earnings reporting is another driver for the market. Profits have largely been better than expected for the start of 2024.
In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 added 1.1% to 38,487.90 as reports circulated of plans for major investments by government-backed pension funds and other big institutional investors.
Semiconductor maker Tokyo Electron shed 2.5%.
The Nikkei financial news outlet said Japan is preparing to put nearly 100 trillion yen ($638 billion) more public money into the markets, following the lead of the Government Pension Investment Fund.
Chinese shares lost ground late in the day following the report showing further pressure on an economy already burdened by a prolonged crisis in the property industry.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.8% to 18,079.61 and the Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.2% to 3,081.81.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1% to 7,701.70 and the Kospi in Seoul was flat at 2,6536.52.
Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 0.9% as shares in the market’s biggest heavyweight, computer chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., fell 2%, tracking declines for other major technology companies.
Nvidia’s loss helped pull the Nasdaq composite down 1.1%, while the S&P 500 sank 0.6% even though the majority of stocks within the index and across Wall Street were higher. The Dow dropped 0.9%.
But stocks broadly got a boost from easing Treasury yields, providing relief after they had climbed earlier this week on worries about tepid demand for Treasury bonds following several U.S. government auctions. Higher yields put downward pressure on all kinds of investments.
Yields fell Thursday after a couple reports showed the U.S. economy isn’t quite as strong as expected.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 4.572% after falling to 4.54% late Thursday. .
In other dealings early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 10 cents to $77.81 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude oil, the international standard, shed 2 cents to $81.86 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 157.20 Japanese yen from 156.82 yen. The euro climbed to $1.0837 from $1.0834.
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