NEW YORK: European and US stocks slid on Friday as traders booked profits while the momentum from the previous week petered out in the absence of fresh market-moving news.
While most Asian markets were cautious, Tokyo’s main index managed to rise as the yen eased, supporting export stocks like automakers sensitive to the currency’s recent strengthening.
In New York the S&P 500 gave up 0.1 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.2 percent in listless trading.
US bourses were joined by a new public exchange, IEX, which opened with a built-in “speed bump” designed to prevent high-speed traders that dominate the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange action from cutting in front of other orders to move prices against them.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index closed down 0.15 percent, while in the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 shed 0.5 percent and the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.8 percent.
