Business News

NEW YORK, Oct 18 (APP/AFP): Global stocks mostly retreated Monday as investors girded for a trove of earnings reports from US and European companies and a European Central Bank monetary policy meeting. Caution was the rule with bourses falling in New York, Europe and most of Asia. Besides uncertainty about earnings and the ECB, analysts pointed to the drag from lower oil prices and edginess ahead of the US presidential election. “The burden of proof lies with the bulls to demonstrate that the market can in fact move higher with all the various economic and political headwinds that we are currently facing,” said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities. ECB chief Mario Draghi will be under pressure this week to clarify the bank’s stimulus plans after investors were spooked by talk of an end to its massive bond-buying program. Europe’s main equities markets ended the day on the back foot, with Paris down 0.5 percent and Frankfurt 0.7 percent. London’s FTSE 100 index fell 0.9 percent and the pound remained under pressure amid reports of divisions between British finance minister Philip Hammond and other cabinet members over how the country should proceed with its exit from the EU, with some suggesting he may resign. US stocks also pulled back, with the S&P 500 sliding 0.3 percent despite another better-than-expected earnings result from a big bank, in this case, Bank of America. Bank of America gained 0.3 percent after it reported that third-quarter net profit rose 6.6 percent to $4.5 billion, easily topping analyst expectations. Last week, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo all bested expectations.