Asia-Pacific equities market retreated Thursday after Wednesday’s substantial gains as investors worried that consumer spending is slowing in the US. A Commerce Department report said that sales in US department stores was 0.5 percent lower in October, while Macy’s (NYSE: M) predicted that same-store sales could decline in the fourth quarter and cut its [...]

Europe’s markets saw gains on Thursday. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1 percent to 1,565.18. Madrid’s IBEX added 1.02 percent to 15,386, while the Dax gained 1.32 percent to 7,932.44 and the Paris CAC-40 jumped 1.51 percent to 5,760.3. Telecommunications utilities did well on the day after France Telecom (Euronext: FTE; [...]

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were higher on Thursday, with new records reached on a number of indices. In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 closed at a record high with a gain of 0.5 percent to 6,771.9 while the Sydney Ordinaries were up 0.52 percent to 6,779.6. Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.52 percent to 9,697.67. [...]

The equities markets were mixed in New York at midday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.2 percent higher to 12,638.03, but the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 0.6 percent to 2,455.52 and the S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 1,443.95.
National Semiconductor dropped 4.3 percent to $22.31 after it reduced its guidance for its fiscal [...]

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 ended the week 0.5 percent lower than it began, closing at 1,512.70 on Friday. The declines came after posting a six-year closing high on Wednesday.
This is not to say that there were not individual gains on the week. Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia added 7.4 percent on the week to [...]

At midday on Monday, Wall Street was running behind due to less than desirable corporate earnings reports as well as investor uncertainty about events in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were each 0.2 percent lower at mid-session, to 11,194.88 and 1,275.46 respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite had [...]