Global Shares Decline: Spending, Inflation in Focus

Tokyo, Nov 27 (AP) Global shares mostly retreated Monday as investors awaited updates on consumer spending and inflation in the US and other nations.

France's CAC 40 edged 0.1% lower in early trading to 7,285.41, while Germany's DAX fell 0.2% to 15,997.64. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.3% to 7,467.37. US shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down 0.1% at 35,393.00. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1% to 4,561.75.

In Asian trading, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 0.5% to finish at 33,447.67 after the producer price index in October came in a little higher than expected, at 2.3%.

In China, industrial profits declined 7.8% in January-October compared with the year before. They rose 2.7% in October for a third monthly year-on-year increase, suggesting weakness in the economy. Industrial profits rose 11.9% year-on-year in September and 17.2% in August.

“While conditions have been improving, it also indicates that recovery has been slow. From the series of economic data lately, recovery momentum has also been on-and-off,” Yeap Jun Rong, a market analyst at IG, said in a commentary.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.2% to 17,525.06, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.3% to 3,031.70.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.8% to 6,987.60. South Korea's Kospi shed less than 0.1% to 2,495.66.

Several central banks in the Asia-Pacific region are holding policy meetings this week, including the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Bank of Korea and Bank of Thailand. While analysts expect them to stand pat on policy, attention remains relatively high, given concerns about inflation.

Traders have recently grown cautiously optimistic that inflation has cooled enough for the Federal Reserve to finally be done with its market-crunching hikes to interest rates.

The Fed will get another big update this week when the government releases its October report for a key inflation measure tracked by the central bank.

Benchmark US crude declined 43 cents to $75.11 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell $1.56 to $75.54 a barrel on Friday.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 44 cents to $80.04 a barrel.

The US dollar inched down to 149.09 Japanese yen from 149.53 yen. The euro cost $1.0946, up from $1.0944.