Reply #4: World stocks mixed as G-20 drags feet on currency

[ozymandius]

SINGAPORE – World stock markets were mixed Friday after a slew of better-than-expected U.S. earnings while a summit of major economies made little headway in easing global currency tensions.

In early European trade, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 0.5 percent to 5,726.63. Germany's DAX dropped 0.3 percent to 6,593.10 and the CAC-40 in France slipped 0.1 percent to 3,872.97.

A proposal by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for emerging nations to set targets to reduce their vast trade surpluses with the West met with immediate resistance.

According to officials at the summit, Geithner's idea is to establish numerical targets for current account balances, be they surpluses or deficits — aiming to reduce conflicts over exchange rates by allowing the currencies of trade surplus countries to rise in concert.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101022/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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Poor Geithner. His ideas have little traction outside of a small circle of fawning admirers.