World stocks mostly higher, despite Greece
BEIJING - Stocks turned higher in European trading on Friday, despite a lack of progress on Greece's bailout, as investors cheered the Nasdaq's record close. Chinese and Japanese shares fell on weaker global manufacturing data.
France's CAC-40 was near flat at 5,178, and Germany's DAX gained 0.3 percent to 11,763. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.3 percent to 7,078.10. On Wall Street, futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.2 percent and the Dow was 0.1 percent higher. Nasdaq looked ready to add to its record, with futures rising by 0.7 percent.
A meeting between Greece and its eurozone creditors on Friday ended without a deal, but only the warning from a top official that "significant" more progress is needed in the talks. Hopes were low going into the gathering, and pressure is growing on Greece, whose finance minister faced "critical" remarks from his eurozone colleagues, according to Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the eurozone finance meetings.
The lack of a deal keeps uncertainty over Greece, which is forecast to have enough money only for another few weeks.
Investor sentiment was buoyed after the Nasdaq rose on Thursday to 5,056.06, above the record of 5,048.62 it set on March 10, 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble. The Nasdaq today is dominated by Apple (AAPL), which makes up 9.7 percent of the index, instead of shooting stars such as Pets.com, Geocities or WebVan that flared and died in the dot-com bust.
A survey by HSBC found China's manufacturing activity weakened this month to its lowest level in a year in a new sign of economic weakness. A survey of eurozone manufacturers by Markit Economics found activity slowed from March's four-year high. A similar survey in Japan showed a third straight monthly deceleration, suggesting industries are not fully in recovery from a recession brought on by a sales tax hike in April 2014.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.8 percent to 20,020, and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5 percent to 4,394. Seoul's Kospi shed 0.6 percent to 2,160. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.5 percent to 5,933, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.8 percent to 28,061. Singapore, Jakarta and New Zealand also advanced.
Benchmark U.S. crude was down 10 cents to $57.64 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.48 on Thursday to close at $57.74.
The dollar declined to 119.55 yen from Thursday's 119.62 yen. The euro rose to $1.0825 from $1.0817.