Stock Market Today: World Shares Mixed Ahead of Fed Decision

Hong Kong, Jan 29 (AP) World shares were mixed Monday as investors braced for an eventful week, including a decision by the US Federal Reserve on interest rates.

The US Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its monetary policy on Wednesday, with traders not anticipating a rate cut. The Bank of England will follow with its rate decision on Thursday.

Monday kicked off with a Hong Kong court's decision to order China Evergrande, the world's most indebted property developer, to be liquidated. Chinese markets were mixed after the ruling, with Hong Kong shares rising while benchmarks in Shanghai and Shenzhen sank.

In early European trading, France's CAC 40 was nearly unchanged at 7,632.50, while Germany's DAX shed 0.5 per cent to 16,875.72. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.2 per cent to 7,646.57.

The future for the SandP 500 added 0.1 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was virtually unchanged.

Beginning Monday, China's securities regulators suspended lending of specific shares for short selling, a move to support the country's declining stock markets. The specific shares refer to Restricted Stock, which is typically allocated to employees or certain strategic investors subject to sales restrictions.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.8 per cent to 16,077.24, while the Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.9 per cent to 2,883.36. The Shenzhen Component index, in China's smaller main market, slipped more than 2 per cent to 8,581.76.

China Evergrande Group will be liquidated after the Hong Kong High Court approved a creditor's petition on Monday rejecting the heavily indebted developer's appeal for more time to work out a resolution for its offshore debts. Evergrande has more than USD 300 billion in liabilities.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.8 per cent to 36,026.94. In South Korea, the Kospi jumped 0.9 per cent to 2,500.65.

Australia's SandP/ASX 200 was 0.3 per cent higher at 7,576.20. In Bangkok, the SET rose 0.8 per cent.

On Wednesday, the Fed's policymakers could signal that they're close to cutting rates by adjusting the language in the statement they issue after each meeting. In December, their statement still suggested officials were willing to consider more rate increases. Removing or altering that language might signal a new approach, focused on rate cuts.

The Fed has hiked its main interest rate to the highest level since 2001, trying to slow the economy and hurt investment prices enough through higher interest rates to get inflation fully under control.

On Friday, the SandP 500 slipped 0.1 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 per cent. Weakness in tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq composite to a 0.4 per cent loss.

A report Friday showed the measure of inflation the Fed prefers to use behaved just about exactly as expected in December. Overall inflation by that measure was 2.6 per cent during the month, matching November's rate.

Treasury yields yo-yoed in the bond market following the report but later rose modestly. On Monday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.10 per cent from 4.12 per cent late Friday.

In energy trading, benchmark US crude gave up 35 cents to USD 77.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 37 cents to USD 82.58 a barrel.

In currency trading, the US dollar slipped to 147.71 Japanese Yen from 148.11 Yen. The Euro cost USD 1.0825, down from USD 1.0846.