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| - Stock markets consolidated their quarterly gains on Wednesday as worrying corporate news and uncertainty about the coronavirus fallout kept a lid on investor exuberance. Equities emerged from the second quarter with impressive gains with the S&P 500, the broadest of the three major US indices, surging 20 percent for the quarter, the biggest such gain since 1998. "With a whimper" is how European and US markets started the third quarter on Wednesday, said Fawad Razaqzada at ThinkMarkets, "as profit-taking hit indices in this first half of the day" and markets faced more uncertainty about, among other things, a possible new coronavirus wave. Even before the quarterly earnings season gives detailed information about the business damage done by lockdowns, multinationals have announced many thousands of job cuts. European aircraft maker Airbus late Tuesday said it planned to axe about 15,000 jobs worldwide, 11 percent of its workforce, in response to the "gravest crisis" the industry has ever seen. SSP, the British owner of food outlets in railway stations and airports worldwide, said Wednesday it was eyeing 5,000 UK job cuts. Improving economic data did little to reassure investors. "For the same reason that markets didn't take much notice of backward-looking apocalyptic economic data in the spring, more positive data seen recently is also being put to one side as investors instead look ahead to a potential coronavirus second wave and tensions over Hong Kong," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. European stock markets were all modestly lower at the close, while on Wall Street the Dow Jones also slipped into negative territory, giving up its opening gains. Earlier, Tokyo closed lower after a closely watched Bank of Japan survey showed that confidence among the country's biggest manufacturers had hit its lowest level since 2009, during the global financial crisis. But Shanghai gained, with investors taking heart from the easing of reimposed lockdowns in China. Oil prices jumped as investors cheered news that Saudi exports had tumbled in June, indicating it was sticking to a massive output agreement with other major producers including Russia. London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 6,157.96 points (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.4 percent at 12,260.57 (close) Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.2 percent at 4,926.94 (close) EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,228.45 New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 25,769.43 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.8 percent at 22,121.73 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.4 percent at 3,025.98 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: Closed for a holiday West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.0 percent at $39.67 per barrel Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.6 percent at $41.92 Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1263 from $1.1234 at 2100 GMT Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2455 from $1.2391 Euro/pound: DOWN at 90.42 pence from 90.65 yen Dollar/yen: DOWN at 107.45 yen from 107.97 yen burs-jh/pvh
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