Weekend markets: Stocks lose ground

An end-of-the-week drop on Wall Street wiped out previous gains despite consumer prices meeting expectations and consumer sentiment rising above them.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 100.17 points, or 0.79%, to 12,595.75 after earlier about 153 points.

The Nasdaq Composite shed 34.57 points, or 1.21%, to 2828.47, while the S&P 500 index fell 10.88 points, or 0.81%, to 1337.77, with every sector in the red. The financial and materials sectors posted the biggest declines.

The Dow fell 0.3% on the week and the S&P 500 slipped 0.2%, marking their second straight week of losses.

Other markets: Europe falls, Asia mixed
European stock markets fell despite faster-than-expected economic growth in France and Germany. Eurozone debt worries are still spooking markets.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.5% to close at 280.50. The UK’s FTSE 100 index fell 0.3% to 5925.87, led by 2.9% drop for ITV.

The French CAC 40 index ended down 0.1% at 4018.85 and the German DAX 30 index was down 0.6% to 7403.31, dragged by a 3.3% drop in Commerzbank.

In Asia, Chinese and Hong Kong stock markets advanced for the first time in three sessions a day.

Stocks in Tokyo dropped as banks were hit by speculation they may have to waive some loans to Tokyo Electric Power. In Seoul, stocks declined after the Bank of Korea surprised the market by not raising a key interest rate.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.9% to 23,276.27, China's Shanghai Composite index added 1% to 2871.03, India's Sensex climbed 1.1% to 18531.28 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 4711.4.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.7% to 9648.77, Korea's Kospi slipped 0.1% to 2120.08 and Taiwan's Taiex gave up 0.3% to 9006.61.

Commodities: Oil rises, gold slips
Production problems at BP’s Buzzard field in the North Sea is propping up prices in Europe, which plays a central role in setting the cost of crude worldwide.

Buzzard field has fallen short of its normal output of 200,000 barrels a day this year, while operator Nexen performs maintenance and starts up a new platform.

The European benchmark June Brent futures ended up 85USc at $US113.83 a barrel while US crude for June settled 68USc higher at $US99.65 a barrel.

Silver prices rallied while gold slipped on modest US inflation data.

The most actively traded gold contract, for June delivery, settled down $US13.20, or 0.9%, at $US1493.60 an ounce in New York.

The most actively traded silver contract, for July delivery, settled up 21.6USc, or 0.6%, at $US35.013 an ounce.

Currencies: US dollar gathers strength
The US dollar has risen to its highest levels in a month as investors seek to lower risk after the recent steep slide in commodities, oil and other high-yielding assets.

The euro was at $1.4107 from $1.4239 on Thursday and at ¥114.00, from ¥115.16.

The dollar was at ¥80.81 from ¥80.87 and 0.8926 Swiss franc from 0.8843 franc. The pound was at $US1.6193 from $US1.6284.