Global stocks dip on soft earnings, sterling drops

By Richard Leong

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock prices slipped modestly on Friday, while sterling dropped on bleak data that raised fears about a possible British recession following the country's June 23 vote to leave the European Union.

The key U.S. S&P and Dow equity indexes were little changed near record peaks amid a raft of weak U.S. corporate results.

Concerns about global oversupply hurt oil prices, putting them on track for weekly losses.

Bond and global prices fell on expectations the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates by year-end following the recent batch of encouraging U.S. economic data.

While analysts now expect smaller U.S. profit declines and more companies beating those estimates, disappointing results from companies like General Electric and Honeywell undermined that outlook.

GE, a bellwether for the U.S. economy, dropped 2.2 percent after reporting disappointing results, and weighed both key indexes down.

In early U.S. trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 3.56 points, or 0.02 percent, at 18,520.79, the S&P 500 was 2.63 points, or 0.12 percent, higher at 2,167.8 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 9.89 points, or 0.19 percent, to 5,083.79.

Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index dipped 0.15 percent to 1,342.13, bogged down by lower mining shares and Swedish construction from Skanska.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 45 nations, fell 0.39 points or 0.09 percent, to 412.04.

Japan's Nikkei closed down 1.1 percent, dragged down by the yen's 1 percent rally on Thursday following remarks from Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda who said he saw no need to use "helicopter money" to boost the world's No. 3 economy.

The yen was little changed at 105.82 yen per dollar and 116.61 yen per euro.

The dollar index edged up 0.2 percent at 97.155.

Among major currencies, sterling booked the biggest daily move, losing nearly 1 percent to $1.3109 on a dramatic deterioration in British data on manufacturing and services activity in July.

These purchasing managers' figures were consistent with a broader 0.4 percent British economic contraction in the third quarter, pushing up the probability of a recession.

In light of concern over the possible global impact of Britain's vote to leave the European Union, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will meet this weekend in Chengdu, China.

While overseas governments and central banks have suggested more stimulus may be required to support their sluggish economies, recent solid readings on the U.S. economy have revived bets the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates by year-end. That put pressure on gold prices and core government bond yields.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose over a basis point at 1.577 percent, while 10-year German bond yields were flat at -0.1 percent.

Spot gold prices fell $8.66 or 0.65 percent, to $1,322.04 an ounce.

In the oil market, Brent crude was last down $0.68, or down 1.47 percent, at $45.52 a barrel. U.S. crude was last down $0.67, or down 1.5 percent, at $44.08 per barrel.

(Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru and Jamie McGeever in London; Editing by Bernadette Baum)