LONDON: European mining stocks led regional indexes slightly higher Thursday after gold gained for a third day in London and tin climbed to a 17- year high.
BHP Billiton and Xstrata led the advance.
Meanwhile, U.
S. stocks fell for the first time in three sessions as stronger- than-expected reports on consumer confidence and home sales reduced speculation that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates next year.
"The economy's going to exhibit strength above everyone's expectations," said Keith Wirtz, chief investment officer at Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati.
"That's the news the market is trying to digest right now and maybe the reason why it's selling off."
In late trading, the Standard Poor's 500-stock index lost 2.45 points to 1,424.
39. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 11.29 points to 12,499.
28. The Nasdaq fell 6.09 points to 2,425.
13.
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index added less than 0.1 percent to end at 366.
32 points in London. The Stoxx 50 and the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the 12- country euro zone, both lost 0.1 percent.
Vodafone Group limited gains after The Financial Times reported that it may become involved in a bidding war for the Indian cellphone company Hutchison Essar. Imperial Chemical Industries rose on takeover speculation.
The Stoxx 600 is at its highest level since December 2000 as investors bet that a record wave of takeovers and profit growth would continue, outweighing concern that the U.
S. economy was slowing.
Markets rebounded and then lost gains after consumer confidence and existing home sales unexpectedly rose in the United States, the biggest trading partner for Europe.
"The consumer confidence figures today were not significant enough to suggest that everything is fine on the economic front," said Alberto Espelos n, a strategist at Ibercaja Gesti n, based in Zaragoza, Spain. "We're not out of the woods yet."
National benchmarks gained in 10 of 18 West European markets.
The DAX in Germany rose 2.95 points to 6,611.81 while the FTSE 100 in London fell 4.
30 points to 6,240.90. The CAC 40 in Paris fell 6.
65 points to 5,533.36.
Trading in the three largest European markets amounted to less than half the daily average over the past six months, based on data compiled by Bloomberg News.
BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, advanced 8 pence to 936.5 pence. Xstrata, one of the world's largest copper producers, gained 59 pence to 2,555 pence.
Antofagasta, the owner of three copper mines in Chile, added 6.5 pence to 508.5 pence.
Gold rose in London as declines in the dollar and a dispute over Iran's nuclear program spurred demand for the metal as a haven. Tin advanced to the highest level since as least 1989.
Vodafone, the world's largest cellphone company, lost 1 penny to 142 pence.
InterContinental Hotels Group, the world's biggest lodging company, climbed for a third day on speculation that it may be a takeover target.
The shares added 13 pence to 12.65, building on a 7.
7 percent gain in the previous two sessions.
Pirelli, the largest investor in Telecom Italia, rose after it said it was open to "new minority investors" in Olimpia, the holding company that controls the phone operator.
Siemens rose 87 cents to 74.
84. The largest European engineering company and International Business Machines set up a joint company with the German government after signing a 7.1 billion order to upgrade the army's computers and phones.
In Asia on Thursday, stocks rose to a seven-month high, with the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong passing 20,000 for the first time, as a gain in U.S. home sales indicated that consumer spending would grow.
Samsung Electronics and Honda Motor led gains. Lower oil prices supported speculation that demand for the region's exports will rise.
"People are pretty optimistic right now, with the U.
S. housing market doing better than we'd thought," said Choi Chang Hoon at Woori Credit Suisse Asset Management in Seoul.
Nippon Steel gained on speculation that increasing demand would raise prices for its products after the shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries said that it would more than double its purchases of steel plate from China.
The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific index added 0.37 point to 140.28 in Tokyo, its highest close since May 11.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 1.66 points to 17,224.81, while the broader Topix rose 1.
96 points to 1,678.91. The Hang Seng rose 276.
18 points to close at a record 20,001.91.
Stock indexes rose across the region except in China, India and Thailand, with the Australian benchmark reaching an all-time high.
Measures in Singapore and Indonesia also rose to records.
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