Japanese stocks closed slightly lower on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 down 0.07% as pressure hit the Paper & Pulp, Transportation, and Communications sectors. Interestingly, amid the index's decline, some stocks still performed well. Pacific Metals surged 6.80% to 2,530.00, hitting a three-year high. Okuma Corp. rose 6.66% to 3,765.00, while Furukawa Electric gained 4.73% to 9,928.00. Mitsui Mining and Smelting led the decliners, dropping 2.14%, followed by Toho Co., which fell 2.03%, and Fujitsu, which fell 1.92%. Broadly speaking, the market was actually still positive: 2,542 stocks...
Both the STOXX 50 and the STOXX 600 hovered around the flatline on the final trading day of a volatile November, as the recent rally in global equities showed signs of losing momentum and investors awaited fresh catalysts. On the data front, inflation in France unexpectedly held steady at 0.9%, while Spain's rate eased to 3%, reinforcing expectations that the ECB will maintain its current policy stance. LVMH (+0.5%), Shell (+0.7%), Siemens (+0.3%), Inditex (+0.2%), and Schneider Electric (+0.3%) traded higher, while Nestlé (-0.4%), Hermès (-0.2%), and EssilorLuxottica (-1.3%) moved...
Hong Kong Stock MarketThe Hang Seng fell 87 points or 0.3% to end at 25,859 on Friday, ending a four-day winning streak as weakness in property and financial stocks weighed on the index. Sentiment weakened amid caution ahead of China's official November PMI data due over the weekend and private survey readings next week. Traders also grew wary as major mainland benchmarks neared multi-year highs on AI-driven optimism, raising concerns about increased volatility heading into year-end. Losses were limited by a modest rise in U.S. futures ahead of a shortened Wall Street session following...