By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer
BEIJING (AP) – Global stock markets were mixed on Monday after Wall Street ended May with a gain and output at Japanese factories rose less than expected.

London opened higher while Frankfurt pulled out. Tokyo declined while Shanghai and Hong Kong won.
Wall Street futures were higher. US markets have been closed for a vacation.

Investors are hesitating between optimism about consumer spending and the resumption of industrial production and unease that rising inflation could prompt governments and central banks to withdraw stimulus measures.

“It still looks like a market looking for direction in the face of uncertainty,” Patrik Schowitz of JP Morgan Asset Management said in a report.

In early trading, the London FTSE 100 was down less than 0.1% to 7,022.61. The Frankfurt DAX fell 0.2% to 15,485.89 while the Paris CAC 40 gained less than 0.1% to 6,487.25.

On Wall Street, futures on the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1%.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% at the end of May with a monthly gain of 0.5% after bumpy weeks of selling as investors watched the conflict between the economic recovery and mounting inflationary pressures .

The Dow added 0.2% and the highly technological Nasdaq gained 0.1%.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4% to 3,615.48 after an industry group and the national statistics agency said manufacturing activity remained stable in May, adding to signs that a rebound was stabilizing.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 1% to 28,860.08 after retail sales in May fell 4.5% from the previous month. Industrial production in May exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time, but growth of 2.5% was lower than expected.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose less than 0.1% to 29,151.80 while the Kospi in Seoul rose 0.5% to 3,203.92. The Sydney S & P-ASX 200 was down 0.2% to 7,161.60.

Indian Sensex was up 1% to 51,965.87. New Zealand, Bangkok and Jakarta won while Singapore fell.

The US Department of Commerce said personal consumption spending, a measure of inflation used by the Federal Reserve, rose 3.6% in April. Excluding food and energy price volatility, inflation was 3.1%, well above the Fed’s long-term target of 2%.

Fed officials said earlier that the economy would be allowed to “heat up” to ensure a recovery is established, but investors are worried about the unexpected sharp rise in prices for consumer goods and some basic products. They were at least temporarily reassured by comments from Fed officials that it is too early to change direction.

In energy markets, benchmark US crude rose 68 cents to $ 67.00 per barrel on electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 43 cents on Friday to $ 66.32 a barrel. Brent, used for the price of international oils, added 66 cents to $ 69.38 a barrel in London. It gained 17 cents the previous session to $ 69.63.

The dollar fell to 109.70 Japanese yen from 109.81 yen on Friday. The euro fell slightly to $ 1.2189 from $ 1.2197.

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