Sawt Falasteen - Stocks mostly retreat on mixed earnings; pound up on new PM

The pound climbed as markets welcomed the appointment of former finance chief Rishi Sunak as Britain's prime minister.

Sunak on Tuesday promised to bring economic stability after the turmoil that forced predecessor Liz Truss out of Downing Street.

"Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis," he told the nation in a televised address.

He vowed to place "economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government's agenda".

"This will mean difficult decisions to come," Sunak added.

In commodities trading meanwhile, oil and European gas prices slid further on weaker demand expectations.

Some market support came from reports suggesting the Federal Reserve could slow its pace of interest rate hikes.

The central bank's policy of ramping up US borrowing costs to fight decades-high inflation has hammered global markets this year as investors worry that they will send the economy into recession.

"Investors are getting more confident that inflation will soften as the consumer rethinks massive purchases," said Edward Moya, analyst at Oanda trading group.

"Fed rate hike expectations will remain volatile, but expectations are growing that a weaker economy will let the Fed pause their tightening after the February policy meeting."

It comes as investors pore over earnings updates from some of the world's biggest companies.

Shares in HSBC slumped 7.5 percent after the banking giant warned on bad loans owing to global economic headwinds.

Elsewhere, General Motors confirmed its full-year financial forecast despite a "challenging environment", saying that consumer demand remained strong.

The big US automaker scored third-quarter profits of $3.3 billion on soaring revenues.

Earlier Tuesday, US tech giant Meta resolved a major WhatsApp outage that prevented its popular service from connecting or sending messages.

- Key figures around 1115 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.8 percent at 6,961.25 points

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.9 percent at 12,820.86

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 6,145.10

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,523.07

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 27,250.28 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 15,165.59 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: FLAT at 2,976.28 (close)

New York - Dow: UP 1.3 percent at 31,499.62 (close)

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.1328 from $1.1281 on Monday

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 148.92 yen from 148.95 yen

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $0.9854 from $0.9876

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.01 pence from 87.56 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.4 percent at $83.39 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 1.4 percent at $91.94 per barrel

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