Global Shares Slide, US Futures Drop   05/19 05:22

   Global shares fell Monday and U.S. futures and the dollar also weakened 
after Moody's Ratings downgraded the sovereign credit rating for the United 
States because of its failure to stem a rising tide of debt.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- Global shares fell Monday and U.S. futures and the dollar 
also weakened after Moody's Ratings downgraded the sovereign credit rating for 
the United States because of its failure to stem a rising tide of debt.

   The future for the S&P 500 lost 1.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial 
Average fell 0.8%. The U.S. dollar slipped to 144.92 Japanese yen from 145.65 
yen. The euro advanced to $1.1254 from $1.1183.

   The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury was at about 4.54%, up from 4.44% 
late Friday.

   In Europe, Germany's DAX retreated 0.1% to 23,733.96 while the CAC 40 in 
Paris lost 0.5% to 7,851.46.

   Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.5% to 8,643.23.

   Chinese markets fell after the government said retail sales rose 5.1% in 
April from a year earlier, less than expected. Growth in industrial output 
slowed to 6.1% year-on-year from 7.7% in March.

   That could mean rising inventories if production outpaces demand even more 
than it already does. But it also may reflect some of the shipping boom before 
some of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods took effect.

   "After an improvement in March, China's economy looks to have slowed again 
last month, with firms and households turning more cautious due to the trade 
war," Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.1% to 23,332.72 and the Shanghai Composite 
Index was nearly unchanged at 3,367.58.

   E-commerce giant Alibaba's shares in Hong Kong skidded 3.4% following a 
report that U.S. officials are scrutinizing a potential Apple-Alibaba deal to 
integrate AI features into iPhones in China.

   Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gave up 0.7% to 37,498.63 while the Kospi in Seoul 
dropped 0.9% to 2,603.43.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.6% to 8,295.10.

   Taiwan's Taiex was 1.5% lower.

   In oil trading early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 47 cents to 
$61.50 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 50 cents to 
$64.91 per barrel.

   Wall Street cruised to a strong finish last week as U.S. stocks glided 
closer to the all-time high they set just a few months earlier, though it may 
feel like an economic era ago.

   The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. It has rallied to within 3% of its record set in 
February after it briefly dropped roughly 20% below it last month.

   Gains have been driven by hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs against 
other countries after reaching trade deals with them.

   The Dow industrials added 0.8% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

   Trump's trade war sent financial markets reeling because they could slow the 
economy and drive it into a recession, while also pushing inflation higher.

   This week featured some encouraging news on each of those fronts. The United 
States and China announced a 90-day stand-down in most of their punishing 
tariffs against each other, while a couple of reports on inflation in the 
United States came in better than economists expected.

   That uncertainty has been hitting U.S. households and businesses, raising 
worries that they may freeze their spending and long-term plans. The latest 
reading in a survey of U.S. consumers by the University of Michigan showed 
sentiment soured again in May, though the pace of decline wasn't as bad as in 
prior months.

   Charter Communications rose 1.8% after it said Friday that it has agreed to 
merge with Cox Communications in a deal that would combine two of the country's 
largest cable companies.

   Hope remains that this week's better-than-expected signals on inflation 
could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to cut interest rates later this 
year if high tariffs drag down the U.S. economy.