Stocks Trade Mixed, China Lags; Dollar Slips

European and U.S. equity futures were mixed on Thursday along with Asian stocks amid concern over renewed Sino-U.S. tensions and the uncertainty over the timing of a new American stimulus package. The dollar dipped to near the weakest since March.

Euro Stoxx 50 contracts nudged higher, while those tied to the S&P 500 were flat after the gauge earlier rose to a five-month high. Shares in China and South Korea underperformed. Equities in Hong Kong edged up after news of the U.S. ordering China’s Houston consulate to shut hit stocks late on Wednesday. The offshore yuan rose and Treasuries were little changed. Shares of Microsoft Corp. dropped and Tesla Inc. surged in after-hours trading.

Index of tech heavyweights nears technical sell signal

Investors also continued to monitor progress on combating the virus’s impact. Pfizer Inc. shares rallied after saying the government ordered up to 600 million doses of its vaccine candidate against Covid-19.

“The escalation in U.S.-China tensions is a reminder of the headline risk faced by investors during the upcoming U.S. election campaign,” said Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at AxiCorp. “The U.S. and China have become increasingly combative in their views this year. The markets better get used to it because there is more of that to come.”

Here are some key events coming up:

Quarterly earnings gather steam, with reports due from Blackstone Group, Intel, Unilever, Canadian Pacific, Daimler, Hyundai and Mattel.
U.S. weekly jobless claims come on Thursday.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

Futures on the S&P 500 were little changed as of 7:01 a.m. in London. The index rose 0.6% on Wednesday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.4%.
Shanghai Composite lost 0.6%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.3%.
South Korea’s Kospi index dropped 0.8%.
Euro Stoxx 50 futures added 0.4%.