Stocks open lower on Wall Street, led by banks and tech

A currency trader walks near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 22, 2021. Asian shares were higher on Thursday after a broad advance on Wall Street led by technology companies and banks. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Currency traders walk near screens showing the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ), left, and the foreign exchange rates at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 22, 2021. Asian shares were higher on Thursday after a broad advance on Wall Street led by technology companies and banks. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Currency traders talk near screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 22, 2021. Asian shares were higher on Thursday after a broad advance on Wall Street led by technology companies and banks. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A currency trader works at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 22, 2021. Asian shares were higher on Thursday after a broad advance on Wall Street led by technology companies and banks. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

In this March 23, 2021 file photo, pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District. Stocks are opening modestly lower on Wall Street, Thursday, April 22, led by drops in banks and technology companies. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Stocks are opening modestly lower on Wall Street, led by drops in banks and technology companies. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% in the early going Thursday. The benchmark index had snapped a two-day slide a day earlier and is still down for the week. There was encouraging news on the economy as the government reported another drop in claims for unemployment benefits last week to another pandemic low, while AT&T, Whirlpool and Equifax all rose after reporting strong quarterly results. Union Pacific fell after the railroad operator reported a 9% drop in profit. Treasury yields held steady.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares rose Thursday after a broad advance on Wall Street as corporate earnings suggested the economy was on the mend from the pandemic.

Benchmarks rose in Paris, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong but fell in Shanghai. U.S. futures edged lower.

Shares in Credit Suisse declined 3% after the bank reported “significant losses” linked to a U.S.-based hedge fund and the Swiss financial regulator said it was looking into possible penalties.

Two weeks ago, markets were rattled when the bank announced it was taking a 4.4 billion Swiss franc ($4.7 billion) charge linked to a default on margin calls by U.S.-based Archegos Capital. Credit Suisse did not identify what it called only a “US-based hedge fund” — but the authority did.

Germany's DAX climbed 0.5% to 15,265.40 and the CAC 40 in Paris picked up 0.8% to 6,258.27. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 6,917.44. The future for the S&P 500 fell less than 0.1%, as did the future contract for the Dow industrials.

In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei 225 index added 2.4% to 29,188.17. Toshiba Corp. jumped 3.5% amid reports that Bain Capital may be considering an acquisition proposal as an earlier takeover bid by CVC Capital appears to have stalled.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.5% to 28,755.34. In Seoul, the Kospi picked up 0.2% to 3,177.52. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 jumped 0.8% to 7,055.40. The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.2% to 3,465.11.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.9%, snapping a two-day slide, to close at 4,173.42. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.9% to 34,137.31. Both the S&P 500 and Dow hit all-time highs on Friday. The technology-heavy Nasdaq added 1.2% to 13,950.22.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks, which has been outpacing the broader market all year, led the way higher, climbing 2.3%, to 2,239.63.

Most of the companies in the benchmark index rose, with technology, financial, and health care stocks accounting for a big share of the gains. Tesla, Amazon and other companies that rely directly on consumer spending also rose. Communication and utilities stocks fell.

Investors are weighing company earnings reports while keeping an eye on bond yields, which eased lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 1.54% from 1.56%.

“It seems like traders are taking every retracement in the stock market as an opportunity to jump back in or double down on their riskier bets, and this is pushing the European and the US stocks higher," Naeem Aslam of avatrade.com said in a commentary.

Much of the market's focus over the next two weeks will be on individual companies and the outcome of their quarterly results. About 80 members of the S&P 500 are due to report results this week, as well as one out of every three members of the Dow. On average, analysts expect quarterly profits across the S&P 500 to climb 24% from a year earlier, according to FactSet.

Investors are looking to justify the market's advance this year, despite the lingering pandemic and higher-than-normal unemployment. There are also signs of COVID infections increasing outside the U.S. in major economies such as India and Brazil once again.

In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 56 cents to $60.79 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $1.32 to $61.35 per barrel on Wednesday.

Brent crude, the international standard, declined 59 cents to $64.73 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 108.00 Japanese yen from 108.08 yen late Wednesday. The euro rose to $1.2039 from $1.2033.