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| - US and European stocks were mixed on Friday as a week that saw equities set new records on both sides of the Atlantic neared its finish. In afternoon trading in Europe, only London's FTSE 100 was showing a minor gain, as a drop in the pound helped take the sting out of data showing Britain's economy tanked on the latest Covid-19 lockdown, while post-Brexit exports to the EU plunged after the country formally departed the bloc. Paris's CAC 40 and Frankfurt's DAX 30, which has streaked to fresh highs repeatedly this week, gave up gains made the previous day after the European Central Bank gave sentiment a boost by promising more support for the economy if needed. On Wall Street, equities open mixed after both the Dow and S&P 500 set records on Thursday after US President Joe Biden finally signed his enormous coronavirus stimulus package into law, with the Dow pushing higher but the S&P slipping lower. Asian stock markets earlier closed mostly higher. "It's not quite the end to the week that investors had hoped, with markets across Europe failing to sustain yesterday's positive momentum," noted Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. "The standout market of the day was Japan where the Nikkei jumped 1.7 percent, a somewhat delayed reaction to the $1.9 trillion stimulus being signed and a weak yen giving support to exporters." Less than two months after taking office, Biden on Thursday put his name to the huge rescue plan that paves the way for a spending splurge widely seen as ramping up domestic and global growth. The package -- which includes up to $1,400 in cash handouts, extended unemployment benefits and other aid programmes -- comes as the US government pushes ahead with its vaccine drive against the coronavirus. The ECB's decision Thursday to ramp up its own stimulus, or bond-buying programme, provided some calm to markets. Observers said the ECB move signalled to investors that central bank officials around the world were ready to step in to keep their monetary policies ultra-low for as long as needed to help the economy get back on track. However, a rise in money market rates this year has led some economists to fear the largesse of global central banks will cause a surge in inflation, potentially leading to an end of the cheap cash that has powered a year-long equity rally. Those fears may be in play once again, analysts said, pointing to the rate on benchmark 10-year US government bonds raising to 1.6 percent. "After some relative calm on the interest rate front, another jump in the 10-year Treasury yield seems to be pressuring stocks this morning, a day after major indices closed at record highs," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite suffered a sharper drop of 1.3 percent. "It seems that the pressure on the Nasdaq is coming amid a reallocation from tech stocks and into cyclical equities" that benefit from an increase in economic growth, said Kinahan. "While such a shift can be unnerving, it's nothing to panic about," he added. London - FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 6,753.34 points Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.7 percent at 14,465.58 Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.7 percent at 6,025.57 EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.6 percent at 3,822.52 New York - Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 32,524.08 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.7 percent at 29,717.83 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 2.2 percent at 28,739.72 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,453.08 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1926 from $1.1982 at 2200 GMT Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3878 from $1.3984 Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.95 pence from 85.66 pence Dollar/yen: UP at 109.07 yen from 108.53 yen Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.4 percent at $69.37 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $65.78 per barrel burs-rl/lth
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