US stocks pause after three-day winning streak

Stocks on Wall Street slipped as investors paused to reassess a three-day rally that's helped the market regain ground after several weeks dominated by unrest in the Middle East and Japan's earthquake.

The pause came after three days that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average gain 3.5% to trade above 12,000 for the first time since the March 11.

Just beforte the close (9am NZT), the Dow was down .7.05 points to 12,029.03, while the S&P 500 index was down 0.3% to 1294.72. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2% to 2686.16.

Leading the declines were industrial and consumer-discretionary stocks. Walgreen fell 6.6% to lead the S&P 500's decliners after the drugstore operator's second-quarter earnings disappointed some analysts.

Other markets: Japanese shares surge, Europe down
Tokyo surged to lead Asian markets higher as easing fears about an earthquake-damaged nuclear power plant and low valuations after last week's sell-off lured investors back into stocks.

The Nikkei Stock Average, which fell more than 10% last week, jumped 4.4% to end at 9608.32. The buying came as several analysts called Japanese stocks undervalued after their recent tumble,

European stocks fell, ending a three-day winning streak, as cautious investors sold shares in engineering companies, carmakers and retailer Metro.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index slipped 0.2% to end at 271.83. In France, the CAC 40 index dropped 0.3% to ,892.71, led by the 2.7% fall for PSA Peugeot Citroen, which said its diesel-engine production would be impacted by the Japanese earthquake. Other carmakers also fell sharply.

UK engineering stocks were also weaker, including a 3.8% fall for GKN and a 1.6% drop for Petrofac. They helped push the FTSE 100 index down 0.4% to 5762.71.

In Frankfurt, Metro dropped 4.7% after the supermarket operator reported a 33% rise in fourth-quarter profit, but also cautioned that its earnings targets were uncertain. It was the biggest decliner on Germany’s DAX 30 index, which closed down 0.5% to 6780.97.

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.8% to 22,857.90 and China's Shanghai Composite added 0.3% to 2919.14.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended little changed at 4643.44, Korea's Kospi rose 0.5% to 2013.66, Taiwan's Taiex climbed 0.5% to 8508.04 and India's Sensex gained 0.8% to 17,988.30.

Commodities: Oil up, gold down
Oil futures recovered from their early slide as fighting in Libya and tensions in the Middle East renewed fears over supply disruptions.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose $US1.35, or 1.3%, to $US103.68 a barrel as it expires. The more actively traded May contract was up $US1.23, or 1.2%, to $US104.32 a barrel. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange advanced 64USc, or 0.6%, to $US115.60 a barrel.

Gold futures fell slightly as tensions eased about the Libyan conflict and Japan's nuclear crisis. The most actively traded gold contract, for April delivery, was recently down $US3.20, or 0.2%, at $US1423.20 an ounce in New York.

Currencies: Pound draws support from euro
The euro slipped against its major rivals as it was further hit by flows into sterling. The US dollar, meanwhile, traded narrowly against the yen near the ¥81 level.

The euro was at $US1.4194 from $US1.4221 late on Monday. The dollar was at ¥80.92 from ¥81.05. The UK pound fetched $US1.6374 from $US1.6313.