European stock markets were down Friday, while Asian markets took cheer from U.S. unemployment claims falling to an eight-year low, AP reported. In London, the FTSE 100 index slipped 0.1 percent to 6,812.27 while Germany's DAX fell 0.3 percent to 9,766.57. The CAC-40 in France dropped 0.7 percent to 4,377.80. Futures indicated caution would prevail on Wall Street, with Dow and S&P 500 futures both down 0.1 percent. Weston said that the estimate of U.S. second-quarter GDP, due Wednesday, would show the world's largest economy picking up to growth of 2.9 percent. A meeting of the Federal Reserve is set for the same day and inflation numbers are due Thursday. Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.1 percent to 15,457.87 and South Korea's Kospi was up 0.4 percent to 2,033.85. China's Shanghai Composite added 1 percent to 2,226.78 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3 percent to 24,247.20. Other Asian markets were lackluster. India's Sensex was down 0.8 percent at 26,064.77 after weeks of hitting new highs. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 percent to 5,583.50. In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude oil for September delivery was down 6 cents to $102.01 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped $1.05 to $102.07 on Thursday. The euro inched down to $1.3449 from $1.3465 late Thursday. The dollar rose to 101.92 yen from 101.77 yen.
