Asian, European Stocks Trade Mixed

Updated from 4:47 a.m. EST

BEIJING -- World stock markets were mixed Friday amid investor uncertainty about the global outlook after Wall Street fell on weak energy demand.

In Asia, markets in Tokyo and Seoul declined, while Hong Kong and China gained after major U.S. indexes slid by about 1% on Thursday. The dollar was lower against the yen and euro.

Investors are trying to sort out conflicting signs from last week's upbeat U.S. growth data, lower oil prices and a weaker dollar, said Andrew Orchard, Asian strategist for Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong.

"We're in a bit of a holding pattern. We have conflicting forces," Orchard said.

in Europe, Britain's benchmark edged up 0.03%, while Germany's DAX added 0.2% and France's CAC-40 shed 0.1%.

In Japan, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was fell 34.18 points, or 0.4%, to 9,770.31. Elsewhere, Seoul's Kospi was off 0.1% at 1,571.99.

Among rising markets, China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5% to 3,187.65, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng recouped its early losses to gain 0.7% to 22,553.63.

Wall Street was poised for a modestly higher open Friday, with futures higher.

On Thursday, a government report showing a jump in U.S. energy inventories caused stocks to slide on concern gasoline demand was falling due to the struggling economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.9%, or 93.79 points, to 10,197.47. That was its biggest drop since Oct. 30 and only its second this month.

That overshadowed an unexpectedly strong jobs report by the Labor Department, which said new unemployment claims fell last week to the lowest level since January.