Stock market today: World shares are mostly lower ahead of a key US inflation report

Shares have fallen in most world markets ahead of a key U.S. inflation report due Friday. Hong Kong led the decline, falling more than 2%. U.S. futures also fell, while oil prices rebounded. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 index edged up 0.2% and most of its component stocks fell. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up less than 0.1%. The markets’ big focus this week is on a U.S. government inflation report due Friday. The personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, and analysts said investors were in a wait-and-see posture after recent mixed data.