World shares mixed as China reports surge in October inflation

Shares opened higher in Europe after mostly falling in Asia on Wednesday as China reported that inflation surged in October.

Benchmarks were higher in London, Paris and Hong Kong but fell in Tokyo and Shanghai.

China's consumer price index, a main measure of inflation, rose 1.5 per cent in October, up from 0.7 per cent the month before, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. The surge to a 13-month high was driven mainly by a jump in prices for food and fuel, it said.

Producer prices, or wholesale prices, climbed 13.5 per cent, adding to worries that price pressures might limit the central bank's ability to adjust its policies to bolster growth.

Chinese markets initially fell following the report, though Hong Kong's Hang Seng recovered from early losses, gaining 0.7 per cent to 24,996.14. The Shanghai Composite index also trimmed its morning losses but still ended 0.4 per cent lower at 3,492.46.

In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 climbed 0.4 per cent to 7,300.26 while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1 per cent higher to 7,050.02. Germany's DAX was nearly unchanged at 16,041.62.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials both edged 0.1 per cent lower.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.47 per cent from 1.44 per cent late Tuesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 0.6 per centto 29,106.78 and the Kospi in South Korea declined 1.1 per cent to 2,930.17. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.1 per cent to 7,423.90. Shares rose in India and Taiwan.

The specter of stubbornly high inflation has haunted the markets for months and China's latest data added to signs it is not dissipating quickly.

But the latest numbers were exaggerated by low comparative data from last year and underlying price pressures remain low, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

We continue to think that consumer price inflation will remain below 2 per cent in the coming quarters and that inflation is unlikely to be a major constraint on the PBOC's ability to loosen monetary policy," he said.

On Tuesday stocks ended moderately lower on Wall Street, breaking an eight-day winning streak that had been fueled by strong company earnings and economic data.

The S&P 500 index lost 0.4 per cent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 0.6 per cent.

Inflation is weighing on U.S. market sentiment as well: the Labor Department reported Tuesday that inflation at the wholesale level rose 8.6 per cent in October from a year earlier, matching September's record annual gain.

The Labor Department will release its Consumer Price Index for October on Wednesday, giving a more detailed picture on how inflation is impacting consumers.

Many industries are facing higher costs for raw materials and energy while contending with supply chain problems. That has been cutting into their operations and prompting them to raise prices on finished goods, which in turn has been making products and services more costly for consumers.

The latest round of earnings is nearing its end, but investors still have several big corporate report cards to review. Walt Disney will report its results on Wednesday. Tapestry, the owner of Coach and other luxury brands, will report its results on Thursday.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil gained 3 cents to USD 84.19 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped USD 2.22 on Tuesday. Brent crude, the basis for international pricing, added 47 cents to USD 85.25 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 113.14 Japanese yen from 112.86 yen. The euro weakened to USD 1.1570 from USD 1.1595.