GLOBAL stock markets wavered yesterday, a day after shares in major US tech firms took a beating and as investors brace for a week of interest rate decisions.

Following a mixed day on European and Asian bourses, Wall Street finished the week on a muted note.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a tiny gain to climb for the 10th straight session for the first time since 2017.

But the Nasdaq again declined, albeit with a much smaller loss than Thursday’s rout.

“There wasn’t any concerted selling interest, but there wasn’t a lot of buying interest either as market participants looked ahead to a busy earnings reporting schedule next week,” said Briefing.com, noting the coming reports from Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook.

With this week’s focus on earnings, the market’s response to results has been a “reflection of what’s been priced in” to individual stocks, said Art Hogan of B. Riley Financial.

Both Tesla and Netflix were “priced for perfection” and stumbled after earnings that fell short, said Hogan, pointing to Johnson & Johnson as a company that surged following results, in part due to a much lower valuation.

Besides earnings, next week’s calendar includes a Federal Reserve policy meeting.

While the Fed is widely expected to hike interest rates, Hogan said the market could be “disrupted” if the US central bank is more hawkish than expected.

He noted that investors do not expect the Fed to raise rates again in September.

The European Central Bank and Bank of Japan are also holding monetary policy meetings next week.

On currency markets, the yen rallied briefly against the dollar after data showed Japanese inflation picked up speed in June, which some saw as putting further pressure on the Bank of Japan to tighten policy.

However, the yen later slid more than 1% as observers suggested the figures were unlikely to shift monetary policymakers from their ultra-loose stance.

The central bank is expected to stand pat at its meeting next week, after governor Kazuo Ueda’s recent dovish comments.

Key figures around 9.15pm:

New York - Dow: UP less than 0.1% at 35,227.69 (close)

New York - S&P 500: less than 0.1% at 4,536.34 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 0.2% at 14,032.81 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.2% at 7,663.73 (close) 

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.2% at 16,177.22 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.7% at 7,432.77 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4% at 4,391.41 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6% at 32,304.25 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.8% at 19,075.26 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1% at 3,167.75 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at US$1.1131 from US$1.1130 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at US$1.2852 from US$1.2868 

Euro/pound: UP at 86.56 pence from 86.50 pence

Dollar/yen: UP at ¥141.77 from ¥140.07 

Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.8% at US$81.07 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.9% at US$77.07 per barrel. – AFP, July 22, 2023.