World stock markets were uneven Friday and Wall Street futures slid ahead of quarterly growth figures that will show whether weakness in China, Japan and Europe has hit the U.S. economy, AP reported. European markets swung between gains and losses in early trading. France's CAC 40 was down 0.3 percent to 4,617.72 and Germany's DAX was little changed at 10,738.14. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.6 percent to 6,772.63. U.S. stocks were set to open with a thud. Dow futures lost 0.7 percent to 17,311. Broader S&P 500 futures were down 0.6 percent to 2,006.80. Japan's industrial output edged higher in December and manufacturing output increased 0.3 percent in December from a year earlier and by 1 percent from the month before. The benchmark Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.4 percent to close at 17,674.39 while South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.1 percent to 1,949.26. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3 percent to 5,588.30. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 1.6 percent to 3,210.36. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 27 cents to $44.81 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 8 cents to close at $44.53 on Thursday. Brent crude, a benchmark for oil sold internationally, lost 15 cents to $48.96 in London. The dollar fell to 117.62 yen from 118.20 the previous day. The euro rose to $1.1343 from $1.1327.
