Global equity markets are mixed. US futures are seeing a pullback while the rest of the world is playing catch up to Thursday’s late day rally on Wall Street. S&P Futures are trading about 24 points lower to around the 4260 area. Despite being down, the market is closer to the top end of the range that saw a high of 4278.50 and a low of 4227.50.
In Asia, China added 0.6% while Japan snapped back to gain 2%. The Shanghai got a boost after the PBOC injected RMB300 billion into the banking system. Although the Chinese benchmark posted a solid gain, it closed closer to the low of the day. In Japan, the Nikkei saw rebounds in many of the stocks that plummeted the day prior. Names like SoftBank, Advantest and Tokyo Electron paced the way with gains of 5-7%.
In Europe, the major bourses are rebounding from yesterday’s carnage. The region got some positive economic news after German Q4 GDP exceeded expectations with a rise of 1.8% compared to the forecast of 1.4%.