World shares were mixed Thursday after declines on Wall Street that snapped a nine-day winning streak for the S&P 500. Oil prices fell back after Israel and Lebanon said they had agreed to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah militants would be banned.Crude had surged Wednesday when both the United States and Iran said they launched retaliations for earlier attacks or attempted ones. Early Thursday in Asia, Brent crude was trading 65 cents lower at $97.16 per barrel, while benchmark U.S. crude oil shed 58 cents to $95.44 per barrel. In early European trading, Germany’s DAX gained 0.6% to 24,933.09 and the CAC 40 in Paris also climbed 0.6%, to 8,201.85. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.1% higher to 10,344.32.The future for the S&P 500 shed 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.4% to 67,470.69 on selling of technology stocks. Energy and technology giant SoftBank Group slumped 11.2%, while Shin-Etsu Chemical dropped 3.8%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.4% to 25,274.98, and the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.8% to 4,057.78.
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In South Korea, the Kospi sank 1.8% to 8,639.41, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.1% to 8,686.10. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.7% from its all-time high for its first drop in 10 days. The Dow industrials dropped 1.2% and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.9%.
