Sawt Falasteen - Stocks tread water with eyes on oil price

Wall Street indexes eked out small gains at the open after the S&P 500 hit another new record on Thursday, while European equities wavered in afternoon trading after a mixed showing in Asia.

Weaker than expected retail sales in the United States also spurred caution ahead of the weekend, raising new questions about the prospects for the world's biggest economy.

While that fed into expectations that the Federal Reserve will not hike borrowing costs anytime soon, "investors should be careful what they wish for", said Bret Kenwell, investment analyst at eToro.

"For the economy to stay resilient, consumers will need to do the same," he said, noting that while US petrol prices eased in July, "that relief did not translate into stronger spending elsewhere".

Data earlier this week showing cooler inflation in the United States has bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve will not rush to raise borrowing costs, potentially crimping growth.

But with the US-Iran conflict showing little sign that it could soon end, worries about growth and stubborn inflation dominated attention across markets.

"A few weeks ago, traders were being asked to justify why the Fed should not hike again," said Stephen Innes, global strategist at Quintex Intel.

"After the latest run of data, the burden of proof has flipped. The market now wants to know what would actually force the Fed to tighten," he said.

US Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the country's top priority in the Iran war was to bring down gasoline prices for American consumers.

Energy prices have swung between big gains and losses in recent weeks as resurgent strikes in the Middle East give way to hopes of a peace deal, and vice versa.

Away from the war, the technology sector continues to occupy the attention of stock markets.

US chip manufacturing equipment group Applied Materials saw its shares slide around three percent despite record quarterly sales of $9.1 billion, with analysts saying investors had expected even more.

In Asia, Seoul gained more than two percent Friday as shares in the chipmakers SK hynix and Samsung recovered further following last month's selloff.

The country's Kospi index had tanked about 40 percent between hitting its June high and an intra-day trough on August 6, but has since rebounded more than 20 percent.

Friday also saw gains for Tokyo, where tech giants Kioxia, Advantest and Sony rallied along with the technology investment titan SoftBank.

Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila and Wellington were also up, while Hong Kong, Sydney, Taipei and Mumbai slipped and Shanghai ended little changed.

- Key figures around 1400 GMT -

New York - DOW: FLAT at 53,854.05 points

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.1 percent at 7,806.16

New York: Nasdaq: FLAT at 26,806.18

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 10,766.17

Paris - CAC 40: FLAT at 8,649.24

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.6 percent at 26,443.29

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.6 percent at 68,713.80 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 25,116.85 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: FLAT at 3,927.18 (close)

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $86.81 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $80.91 per barrel

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1581 from $1.1528 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3554 from $1.3486

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 158.99 yen from 159.52 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.46 pence from 85.48 pence

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U.AlSharif--SF-PST