Global stocks looked weak on Friday morning after China's central bank raised its reserve requirement ratio for the nation's banks in a further attempt to head off inflation.
U.S. stock index futures were down with about an hour before markets open, suggesting that stocks will fall at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were down 53 points or 0.5 per cent. Futures for the broader S&P 500 were down 4 points or 0.3 per cent.
In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 1 per cent and Germany's DAX index was down 0.5 per cent in afternoon trading. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.9 per cent in overnight trading.
China's move -- its seventh in the past year -- to tighten lending requirements was bigger than expected, and raises concerns about the impact on demand for commodities, in particular. It also offset at least two sets of upbeat earnings news.
Intel Corp. shares were up 1.7 per cent in premarket activity after the chip maker reported a 48 per cent jump in its quarterly earnings after markets closed on Thursday. On Friday morning, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported that its fourth-quarter profit rose 47 per cent over last year, to $1.12 (U.S.) a share, due in part to tumbling loan-loss provisions. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 99 cents a share. The shares fell 0.9 per cent in premarket activity.