World stock markets traded in a narrow range Thursday amid growing concerns of an overheating Chinese economy and as investors awaited more US economic data over the rest of the week for further insights into the state of the US economic recovery. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 1.19 point at 5,639.38 while the CAC-40 in France was less than a point lower at 3,942.88. Germany's DAX rose 9.09 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,945.81. Wall Street was also poised for a fairly subdued opening – Dow futures were down 9 points, or 0.1 percent, at 10,556, while the broader Standard and amp; Poor's 500 futures fell 2.4 points, or 0.2 percent, at 1,143.30. “Financial markets are finely poised,” said Kit Juckes, chief economist at ECU Group. Juckes reckons that much will hinge on whether the S and amp;P 500 can break through its previous high of 1,150 or not – on Wednesday, the S and amp;P 500 closed up 5.16 points, or 0.5 percent, at 1,145.61. “My bets, unchanged of late, are that equities break out to the upside,” he added. US stocks in particular may be jolted out of their current torpor by weekly jobless claims figures later – the consensus in the markets is that claims will drop modestly to around 460,000 last week from 469,000 in the previous week. More will come on Friday when US retail sales and consumer sentiment figures, which should shine a light on the state of consumption in the US. The state of the US consumer is particularly important for the US economy as retail spending accounts for around 70 percent of the world's largest economy. Earlier in Asia, worries about rising inflationary pressures in China reined in any buying momentum, though Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average gained 88.91 points, or 0.9 percent, to 10,653.70 as investors were boosted by a news report the government will soon upgrade its economic assessment for this year. The markets are wary at the moment by concerns that the monetary authorities in China may start raising interest rates soon to keep a lid on mounting inflationary pressures – figures earlier showed that China's inflation rate jumped to 2.7 percent in February over a year earlier from 1.5 percent in January.
