By Chibuike Oguh and Iain Withers
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -Global stocks were flat but still traded near record highs on Friday as investors awaited talks in Alaska between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
Short-term U.S. Treasury bond yields fell with markets anticipating a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.
The Dow hit a record high earlier in the session, becoming the last of Wall Street’s main indexes to soar to a new peak. Benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were losing ground, dragged down by technology, utilities and financials stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.09%, the S&P 500 fell 0.25% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.36%.
“This market continues to move higher and the story is just earnings and margins,” said Talley Leger, chief market strategist at The Wealth Consulting Group in New Jersey.
“The inflation numbers that we saw this week were mostly services and in a services-based economy like ours, this is good for profit margins.”
Data showed that U.S. retail sales increased solidly in July, rising 0.5% from the prior month, after an unexpected spike in producer price data on Thursday renewed inflation concerns and pared market expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts this year.
European shares touched a near five-month high before pulling back, as investors drew support from a largely positive earnings season. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat at 0.08%.
The MSCI All Country World Index consolidated recent gains. It was last up 0.05% at 952.34, just shy of the record level of 954.21 set on Wednesday.
The White House has said the Trump-Putin meeting will take place at 11 a.m. Alaska time (1900 GMT), with the U.S. president’s hopes of a ceasefire agreement on Ukraine uncertain.
Trump has said a second summit involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could follow if the talks go well.
Details and the longevity of any agreement will be key, and for now investors are on standby. Ukraine’s government bonds – key indicators of the mood – in recent days have largely stalled at a still-distressed 55 cents on the dollar.
“There’s still a small degree of risk premium in European markets because of the war. Any type of resolution will ultimately pare that back,” said Shaniel Ramjee, co-head of multi-asset at Pictet Asset Management, adding that oil and other commodity prices could also react.
“But I think that the market has learnt not to expect too much from these negotiations. Ultimately, Zelenskiy and the Europeans are not invited. They will need to be involved in any final negotiation,” Ramjee added.
The two-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Fed, fell 0.9 basis points to 3.73%. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 0.3 basis points to 4.297%.
In currency markets, the dollar weakened 0.64% to 146.82 against the Japanese yen and was down 0.35% to 0.805 against the Swiss franc. The euro <EUR=EBS> was up 0.57% at $1.1712.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last trading down 0.45% at 97.74.
Japanese GDP data released on Friday showed the economy expanding by an annualised 1.0% in the April-to-June quarter, beating analyst estimates. The dollar weakened 0.6% against the yen to 146.875.
Brent crude was down 0.79% at $66.32 per barrel. U.S. crude fell 0.89% to $63.45.
Spot gold rose 0.17% to $3,341.26 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.22% to $3,342.70 an ounce.
Cryptocurrency markets stabilised after bitcoin touched a record $124,480.82 on Thursday. It was down 0.35% to $117,531.48.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York and Iain Withers in London; Additional reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter in Singapore; Editing by Stephen Coates, Kate Mayberry, Alex Richardson and Joe Bavier)
