Global stocks are mixed after a sharp decline on Wall St led by Big Tech

Hong Kong — European markets opened higher while Asian shares were mostly lower on Friday, with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index losing more than 2 percent after a sharp decline on Wall Street.

France’s CAC 40 added 0.4 percent in early trade to 7,377.79 and Germany’s DAX gained 0.2 percent to 19,116.71. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4% to 8,143.82. Dow futures rose 0.1% to 42,004.00 and S&P 500 futures rose 0.3% to 5,753.00.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 2.6 percent to 38,053.67. On Thursday, the Bank of Japan said it would keep its key rate unchanged at 0.25 percent, which was in line with market expectations. The Japanese yen traded lower on Friday. The dollar rose to 152.61 Japanese yen from 152.00 yen.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was the exception to Friday’s bearish jitters. It rose 0.9 percent to 20,506.43, while the Shanghai Composite rose in morning trade but fell 0.2 percent later in the day to 3,272.01.

Factory activity in China returned to growth in October, with the official manufacturing PMI released on Thursday reaching 50.1, ending five straight months of contraction. Another private survey on Friday showed a reading of 50.3, above the 50 expansion line.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5% to 8,118.80 after its third-quarter producer price index rose 3.9% from a year earlier – a return to annual growth below 4 .0% for the first time since September 2023, according to data from the Australian. Bureau of Statistics.

Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.5 percent to 2,543.36. Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.2 percent, weighed down by a 0.5 percent decline in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., Apple’s chip supplier. Apple’s quarterly earnings report on Thursday revealed a decline in sales revenue from China.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 1.9 percent to 5,705.45 for its worst day in eight weeks, falling further from a record set in early October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9 percent to 41,763.46, while the Nasdaq composite fell 2.8 percent to 18,095.15 for a second straight loss after setting its latest all-time high .

The Big Tech crash on the last day of October erased the S&P 500’s gain for the month. The index fell 1 percent for its first monthly decline in six, even as it set an all-time high during that period.

In the bond market, Treasury yields edged lower on a mixed set of reports on the US economy.

A report said a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use fell to 2.1 percent in September from 2.3 percent. That’s close to the Fed’s 2 percent target, although the underlying trends — after ignoring food and energy costs — were slightly hotter than economists had expected.

A separate report said growth in workers’ wages and benefits slowed over the summer. This could put less pressure on future inflation.

Meanwhile, a third report said fewer US workers filed for unemployment benefits in the previous week. This is an indication that the number of layoffs remains relatively low across the country.

Treasury yields rose and fell several times after the reports before falling. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.27 percent from 4.30 percent late Wednesday. That’s still up sharply from the roughly 3.60% level it was at in mid-September.

In other trade, benchmark U.S. crude gained $2.03 to $71.29 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose $1.82 to $74.63 a barrel.

The euro fell to $1.0859 from $1.0885.