U.S. futures pointed to a fall of around a third of one percent on Wall Street ESc1 SPc1. Shares in Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N) were down nearly 5 percent in pre-market trade after reporting a rare earnings miss late on Tuesday.
"I`m still in the bearish camp, and any rallies on the market are for selling," said Terry Torrison, managing director at Monaco-based McLaren Securities. "Some company results have beaten expectations, but you have to remember by just how much some of these expectations had already been lowered."
Financial services were among the biggest losers in Europe. Their 2 percent fall .SX7P was led by a 10 percent plunge in Austria`s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI) after it said it would look into a possible merger with RZB.
Shares in outdoor advertising firm JC Decaux (JCDX.PA) slumped nearly 10 percent after it issued a weak second-quarter outlook. Several investment banks cut their ratings and price targets on the stock.
The FTSEuroFirst 300, German DAX and fFench CAC 40 .FCHI were all down around 1 percent. Britain`s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 percent lower.
MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS also fell 0.1 percent. It has risen only one day in the last three weeks and on Tuesday it hit an eight-week low.
Japanese shares ended flat, with the Nikkei .N225 relinquishing earlier gains as a rally in the yen gathered steam.
MSCI`s broad gauge of global stocks .MIWD00000PUS fell, too. On Tuesday it had climbed nearly 1.1 percent, its best session in about a month, in large part driven by the S&P 500`s .SPX best day in two months, a 1.3 percent rise.
MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT
In currency markets, the dollar weakened, led by losses against the yen. The U.S. currency had risen to a two-week high after an economic adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told on Tuesday that Japan would intervene if the yen strengthened to 90 to 95 per dollar.
But dealers locked in profits on Wednesday, pushing the dollar down 0.7 percent to 108.50 yen JPY=. Last week the Japanese currency hit an 18-month high of 105.55 per dollar.
"The recent rise in dollar/yen might be seen as a victory for the Bank of Japan but, perhaps unfortunately, this looks more like a marathon than a sprint," said Steve Barrow, head of G10 strategy at Standard Bank.
The euro EUR= rose 0.2 percent on the day to $1.1390. Last week, it traded at $1.16, its highest this year.
The dollar`s index against a basket of six major currencies .DXY was down a quarter of one percent at 94.070, easing back from Tuesday`s two-week high of 94.150.
Bonds remained well-supported, indicating investors were wary about riskier assets in an environment of sluggish global growth.
An auction of three-year U.S. notes on Tuesday was received well. Yields on 10-year debt US10YT=RR were at 1.75 percent, not far away from a 2016 low of 1.53 percent.
German government bonds also reflected the cautious undertone. Ten-year yields EU10YT=RR were down a basis point at 0.11 percent.
Longer-dated yields on peripheral Spanish and Italian bonds, however, climbed to multi-month highs on Wednesday as Spain began the sale of a 50-year bond and investors anticipated Italy might soon do the same.
Spain`s benchmark 30-year bond yields rose to a two-month high of 2.95 percent ES30YT=TWEB and Italy`s rose as high as 2.78 percent IT30YT=TWEB. Spain received orders of over 10 billion euros for its bond.
In commodities, oil prices see-sawed after Tuesday`s rally of around 4 percent. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were last up 1 percent at $46.00 per barrel and U.S. crude futures CLc1 were up 0.3 percent at $44.80 per barrel. Both had opened the European day around 1 percent lower.
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