osacexas1988

European Markets, Awaiting Data, Are Mixed European shares were mixed on Wednesday after more disappointing economic reports reinforced concerns about a recovery in the United States. Investors are also started to look ahead to Friday and the crucial jobs report in the United States. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 32.89 points, or 0.6 percent, while the DAX in Frankfurt rose 16.55 points, or 0.3 percent. The CAC 40 in Paris was down unchanged. Earlier, stock markets in Asia were mixed. While Japan?s Nikkei 225 closed down 204.67 points, or 2.1 percent, to 9,489.34, the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.4 percent to 2,638.52 and Hong Kong?s Hang Seng advanced 0.4 percent to 21,549.88. Wall Street was poised for modest declines at the open after slipping Tuesday following downbeat figures on pending home sales, factory orders and consumer spending. The disappointing reports were a fresh reminder that the recovery is weakening. They tempered the excitement seen Monday when an Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index did not show as much of a slowdown as forecast. Cautious investors continued to move their money into Treasuries, which drove interest rates lower in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.89 percent from 2.92 percent late Tuesday. Its yield is often used as a benchmark for rates on mortgages and other consumer loans. Stocks dipped Tuesday after reports showed personal income and spending were flat in June and factory orders and pending home sales both fell in June. All four readings fell below economists? expectations, which added to the worries about the slowing pace of recovery. Before the markets opened on Wall Street, the payroll company ADP said private employers ramped up hiring slightly in July. ADP saidprivate employers added 42,000 jobs last month. That was slightly better than the 40,000 new jobs predicated by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. High unemployment remains the biggest obstacle to a stronger recovery. The data follows the trend seen over the past few months that the economy continues to expand, but at a sluggish pace. Economic reports over the past couple of days have begun to again overshadow quarterly earnings, which were mostly upbeat and drove stocks higher in July. Results that beat forecasts have largely been welcomed by investors in recent days because it provides reassurances that while a recovery might be slow, the economy isn?t falling back into a second recession. The ADP report is often used as a gauge for the Labor Department?s monthly employment report. The government report, which is broader and includes government jobs as well as private sector employment, is due out Friday. ?The potency of data for the market is particularly strong at the moment,? an analyst at Credit Agricole, Daragh Maher, said. ?In part, this is due to talk of a double-dip in the U.S. which has lent any soft data particular prominence but it is also because there is a new sense of urgency as to what this might mean for policy.? If Friday?s payrolls data come in below expectations for an increase in jobs of around 100,000, then the markets will be on the lookout for additional money-boosting measures from the Federal Reserve, though many economists doubt that the rate-setting panel will decide to get anything done so quickly. If the Fed turns on the taps once again, then most currency strategists think the dollar will be undermined further, after falling to a four-month low against the euro on Tuesday. The euro was down slightly at $1.3206. On Tuesday, it went as high as $1.3261. While the dollar has been pressured by the evidence showing the American economy is losing momentum, the euro has recovered its poise as the government debt crisis has eased and the economic reports out of the 16 countries that use the currency has generally outperformed expectations. ?What is clear is that the focus of concerns has moved very clearly from the euro zone towards the U.S.? said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon. One sector that stubbornly fails to match the improvements seen elsewhere, though, is consumer spending. Eurostat, the European Union?s statistics office, said retail sales in the euro zone were flat in June from May, down from a 0.4 percent rise booked in May. June?s outcome was in line with expectations after figures showed that sales in Germany and France fell sharply, and means retail sales were only 0.4 percent higher in June than the year before. The figures came out a day ahead of the European Central Bank?s expected decision to leave its key interest rate unchanged at 1 percent. Though its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, is expected to sound a more optimistic tone in his news conference after the announcement, he is likely to point to the hurdles the euro zone economy faces, not least the fact that consumers are holding back from major purchases even though separate figures last week showed consumer confidence running at a 26-month high. The worry is that consumer spending may get pressured by the austerity measures being enacted across the euro zone in response to the government debt crisis.