World stock markets fell modestly Friday after a survey showed US consumer confidence falling to its lowest level since March and amid ongoing worries that the US second-quarter earnings reporting season will disappoint. Stocks zigzagged during the week, failing to hold what few gains they could muster. The Dow Jones industrials and the Standard and Poor's 500 index have now fallen four straight weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 36.65, or 0.5 percent, to 8,146.52. The Standard and amp; Poor's 500 index lost 3.55, or 0.4 percent, to 879.13, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 3.48, or 0.2 percent, to 1,756.03. A handful of upgrades to technology shares helped shore up the Nasdaq. For the week, the Dow lost 1.6 percent, the S and P 500 index slide 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq lost 2.3 percent. Investors have sent major indexes down about 7 percent since mid-June on the belief that a more than 40 percent run-up in stocks this spring was unwarranted considering the problems that still plague the economy such as rising unemployment. Bond prices rose, sending their yields lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, a widely used benchmark for consumer loans such as mortgages, fell to 3.30 percent from 3.41 percent late Thursday. In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 1.71, or 0.4 percent, to 480.98. Declining stocks narrowly outpaced those that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 922.1 million shares compared with 1 billion shares Thursday. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 6.37 points, or 0.2 percent, at 4,152.29 while Germany's DAX fell 8.91 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,621.16. The CAC-40 in France was 13.80 points, or 0.5 percent, lower at 3,012.14. Earlier in Asia, markets gyrated throughout the day before edging down. Japan's Nikkei index notched up its eighth straight loss, closing 3.78 points lower to 9,287.28. Key over the coming days and even weeks could be the second-quarter earnings reporting season in the US as it will provide clues about whether companies have already seen the worst of the recession or whether they are still struggling in the first synchronized global economic downturn since WWII. “Stock market investors seem happy to continue playing a wait and see game at the moment as the US earnings season rolls on,” said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index. “After the sharp gains seen following the March bounce back, there is a real reluctance to commit any further to equities at these levels, so it would not be surprising for this drift in stock markets to continue,” he added. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 82.17, or 0.5 percent, to 17,708.42. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.2 percent and Shanghai's index shed 0.3 percent. However, Australia's index gained 0.8 percent and Singapore's market fell 0.2 percent. The dollar fell 0.7 percent to 92.41 yen while euro was 0.5 percent down at $1.3942.
