By Joe Wallace
Global stocks were mixed Wednesday, while mainland Chinese shares extended a winning streak for a seventh consecutive day.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 ticked up 0.1%, signaling that equity markets will regain their footing after pulling back on worries that the pace of the economic recovery has slowed. The blue-chip index fell 1.5% Tuesday, its biggest one-day decline since June 26.
Chinese shares resumed their recent spurt, pushing the Shanghai Composite Index up 1.7%. The index has advanced 8% this week as small investors bet that a recovering economy will boost profits. The streak has revived memories of an earlier rally in Chinese stocks in 2015, which ended in a crash.
U.S. stocks have traded in a narrow range for the past month, after zooming higher for much of the second quarter. Investors are weighing stimulus efforts by central banks and governments against signs that the rebound in U.S. economic growth has lost speed, a jump in coronavirus cases in parts of the country, and rising tensions between China and the West.
"I would characterize the stock market as relatively immune to the [health] crisis," said Gregory Perdon, co-chief investment officer at Arbuthnot Latham & Co., a U.K. private bank. It is difficult for stock prices to go down when stimulus measures by the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank have pinned down bond yields, he added.
The U.S. reported 60,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, a single-day record, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The main risk markets face is that the U.S. unemployment rate starts to rise again, after falling to 11.1% in June, according to Mr. Perdon.
"What I'm keenly focused on is how the employment picture, or the changing employment picture, will play into consumption and how that feeds into earnings," he said.
International stock markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index was down 0.8%. The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2%, led lower by shares in banks.
Nokia shares fell 7% after analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded the telecom-equipment maker's stock, citing signs that Verizon Communications could buy more kit from Samsung Electronics.
The yield on 10-year Treasury notes ticked up to 0.65% from 0.648% Tuesday. The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of other currencies, slipped 0.1%.
Oil prices fell ahead of data from the Energy Department showing the size of U.S. crude stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate futures slipped 0.4% to $40.46 a barrel after a separate gauge from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, suggested inventories grew by 2 million barrels last week.
Write to Joe Wallace at Joe.Wallace@wsj.com
