World Shares Lower after Wall St Rebound on US Growth Data

World Shares Lower after Wall St Rebound on US Growth Data

A currency trader watches monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, July 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

World shares and US futures were mostly lower Friday despite a flurry of reports showing economic recoveries from the pandemic gained pace in the last quarter.

The zone of countries using the euro saw its GDP jump 13.7% from a year earlier in the April-June quarter, according to a preliminary estimate. That followed a report Thursday showing the US economy has recovered to above its pre-pandemic level.

Germany's DAX dropped 0.8% to 15,511.92 and the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1% lower to 6,623.52. Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.8% to 7,020.61. US shares looked set for a retreat, with the future contract for the S&P 500 down 0.7%. The contract for the Dow industrials fell 0.3%.

Japan also reported relatively strong economic data for the previous quarter, before the government began tightening coronavirus restrictions as cases surged.

“Retail sales, industrial production and employment all rebounded strongly in June, pointing to a sizable recovery in activity in between the alpha- and delta-driven coronavirus waves," Capital Economics said in a report.

However, the spread of the delta variant of the