World Shares Mixed on Russia Sanctions 10/23 04:48

   World shares were mixed on Thursday following a retreat on Wall Street, 
while crude prices jumped more than $2 after U.S. President Donald Trump 
announced sanctions on Russian oil giants.

   MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- World shares were mixed on Thursday following a 
retreat on Wall Street, while crude prices jumped more than $2 after U.S. 
President Donald Trump announced sanctions on Russian oil giants.

   The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil are intended to drive Russian 
President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and help end Moscow's brutal 
war on Ukraine.

   Meanwhile, European Union leaders were holding a summit Thursday, aiming to 
greenlight still more sanctions against Russia and press ahead with plans to 
use Moscow's assets that are frozen in Europe to fund Ukraine's war effort and 
economy for at least the next two years.

   U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $2.70 to $61.21 per barrel. Brent crude, the 
international standard, rose $2.85 to $65.44 per barrel.

   The future for the S&P 500 was up more than 0.1% while that for the Dow 
Jones Industrial Average shed 0.1%.

   In early European trading, Germany's DAX slipped 0.3% to 24,083.89. 
Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.1% to 9,527.33, while in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.4% 
to 8,238.47.

   Chinese shares rose from losses earlier in the day as leaders in Beijing 
were wrapping up an important Communist Party meeting that will set the agenda 
for the coming five years.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.7% to 25,967.98 while the Shanghai 
Composite index edged up 0.2% to 3,922.41 as reports indicated Washington may 
tighten restrictions on exports to China of products made using U.S. software.

   Japan's Nikkei 225 shed nearly 1.4% to 48,641.61 on reports that Prime 
Minister Sanae Takaichi is preparing a stimulus package larger than last year's 
of nearly 14 trillion yen (about $92 billion). SoftBank Group led losers, with 
shares shedding more than 4% after it unveiled plans to finance its investments 
in artificial intelligence by issuing U.S. dollar and euro dominated bonds.

   Takaichi has also said she favors keeping interest rates near their current 
low level of close to zero, and that has caused the Japanese yen to weaken 
against the dollar. The dollar rose to 152.59 Japanese yen Thursday, up from 
151.94 yen.

   South Korea's Kospi fell 1% to 3,845.56, with investors remaining cautious 
while trade negotiations with the U.S. made limited progress.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added less than 0.1% to 9,032.80.

   Taiwan's Taiex slipped 0.4%, while India's BSE Sensex rose 0.6%.

   On Wednesday, the S&P 500 sank 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average 
dropped 0.7%, from its record set the day before. The Nasdaq composite fell 
0.9%.

   Netflix helped drag the market lower after delivering a weaker profit for 
the latest quarter than analysts expected. The pressure is on the video 
streamer and on companies broadly to deliver solid growth in profits. That 
would counter criticism that their stock prices shot too high following a 35% 
romp for the S&P 500 from a low in April.

   Capital One Financial rose 1.5%, and Western Alliance Bancorp climbed 3.2% 
following their own profit updates that beat analysts' expectations. The report 
from Western Alliance was particularly welcome after it helped shake confidence 
in the industry last week. It's one of several banks that had warned of 
potentially bad loans on its books, possibly because of fraud.

   Beyond Meat, meanwhile, swung sharply through a manic Wednesday. After 
surging as much as 112% in the morning, its stock erased all of that to finish 
with a drop of 1.1%. It's still up 454.5% for the week so far in the midst of 
its meme-stock run.

   The maker of plant-based meat alternatives was the biggest holding in the 
Roundhill Meme Stock exchange-traded fund, as of Tuesday. The ETF holds stocks 
where investors have piled in because they're hoping to catch a wave of 
momentum, almost regardless of how or even what the businesses themselves are 
doing.

   In other dealings early Thursday, the price of gold recovered about 1.6% to 
$4,131.80 after sliding for two days from its record high.

   The euro slipped to $1.1595 from $1.1610.