NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are drifting, as Nvidia continues to cool from its torrid run and worries rise about the strength of Europe’s economy. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% Friday, though it’s still near its all-time high set on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 6 points, and the Nasdaq composite was flat. Nvidia again was dragging on the market again and heading for its first losing week in the last nine. European stocks fell after preliminary data reports suggested business activity among countries that use the euro currency is weaker than economists expected. Treasury yields slipped.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
TOKYO — Global shares were mostly lower Friday after a retreat on Wall Street, where a drop in Nvidia stock pulled stocks lower.
France’s CAC 40 dipped 0.1% to 7,661.64 and Germany’s DAX fell nearly 0.2% to 18,227.44. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.3% to 8,251.91.
The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% lower while that for the S&P 500 slipped 0.2%.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 finished little changed, down less than 0.1% at 38,596.47, after the government reported that the inflation rate ticked higher for the first time in three months, to 2.5% in May, up from 2.2% in April.
“We will have one more month of data before the next Bank of Japan meeting, which will be on close watch to determine if markets are getting ahead of themselves by leaning towards a potential rate hike in September this year,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG.
The Japanese yen was trading near 34-year lows against the U.S. dollar, at 158.88, compared with 158.92 late Thursday.
The U.S. Treasury put Japan on its watchlist for potential manipulation of its currency on Thursday, though its annual report concluded that no major trading partner had engaged in distorting its currency to seek an advantage.
The dollar has remained strong against many other currencies in the past several years after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to try to conquer inflation. Since Japan’s own benchmark interest rate is near zero, the gap has undermined the value of the yen against the dollar in a trend that has actually raised concerns in Tokyo over volatility in exchange rates.
China’s central bank has sought to staunch weakness in the yuan by setting its value higher than expected. The yuan’s parity rate was set at 7.1196 against the U.S. dollar. It was set at 7.1192 on Thursday. Traders had been 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 shares lost ground following Nvidia’s overnight decline, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropping 1.7% to 18,028.52 while the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2% to 2,998.14.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to 7,796.00. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.8% to 2,784.26.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3% Thursday from its all-time high set before Wednesday’s holiday for financial markets. The Nasdaq composite also pulled back from its record, falling 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average beat the market with a gain of 0.8%.
Nvidia gave up an early gain and fell 3.5% to put at risk an eight-week winning streak. The company’s computer chips are helping to power the move into AI, which proponents see producing explosive growth in productivity and profits, and it’s already up 164% this year after more than tripling last year.
In other dealings early Friday, benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 6 cents to $81.23 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 11 cents to $85.60 a barrel.
The euro fell to $1.0687 from $1.0702.
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