Global Markets Lower                   08/19 05:09

   Global stock markets and Wall Street futures fell Friday after unexpectedly 
good U.S. jobs data left room for more interest rate hikes to cool inflation.

   BEIJING (AP) -- Global stock markets and Wall Street futures fell Friday 
after unexpectedly good U.S. jobs data left room for more interest rate hikes 
to cool inflation.

   London, Shanghai, Tokyo and Frankfurt declined. Oil prices edged lower but 
stayed above $90 per barrel.

   Fewer Americans than expected filed unemployment claims last week, the Labor 
Department reported Thursday. That might reinforce sentiment at the Federal 
Reserve that the world's biggest economy can tolerate more rate hikes to cool 
inflation, which is running at multi-decade highs, without derailing growth.

   That "might keep the door open for aggressive Fed tightening," Edward Moya 
of Oanda said in a report.

   In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London fell 0.4% to 7,513.45 and 
Frankfurt's DAX lost 0.5% to 13,623.81. The CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.3% to 
6,536.65.

   On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index was off 0.6%. 
That for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%.

   On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2%. The Dow gained 0.1% and the Nasdaq 
composite added 0.2%.

   In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6% to 3,258.08 and the Nikkei 
225 in Tokyo shed less than 0.1% to 28,930.33. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 
0.4% to 19,838.10.

   The Kospi in Seoul shed 0.5% to 2,495.03 while Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 lost 
less than 0.1% to 7,110.40.

   India's Sensex lost 1% to 59,701.73. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets 
retreated.

   Investors looked ahead to the Fed's annual Jackson Hole conference in 
Wyoming next week for indications of when and how much the U.S. central bank 
might raise rates.

   Minutes of the Fed's July meeting released this week said inflation still is 
too high and made clear the central bank will keep raising interest rates.

   The Fed has raised interest rates twice this year by 0.75 percentage points, 
triple its usual margin. Forecasters expect a hike at the board's September 
meeting, but say pressure for a similarly large increase has declined as 
economic growth cooled.

   Data on Wednesday showed July retail sales held steady with the previous 
month despite concern inflation might depress consumers' willingness to spend.

   In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude lost 95 cents to $89.55 38 per 
barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract 
surged $2.39 to $90.50 on Thursday. Brent crude, the price basis for 
international trading, fell 94 cents to $95.64 per barrel in London. It jumped 
$2.94 the previous day to $96.59.

   The dollar rose to 136.49 yen from Thursday's 135.91 yen. The euro fell to 
$1.0078 from $1.0091.