AP Tokyo

Global shares were mostly lower Wednesday on selling of technology shares following a lackluster day on Wall Street. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.5% in early trading to 8,213.90. The German DAX dipped 0.3% to 24,251.58. Britain's FTSE 100 climbed 0.6% to 9,487.52. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was nearly flat and the Dow gained 0.5%.

The Nasdaq composite index lost 0.2%.  In Asian trading, Chinese markets retreated after US President Trump cast doubt on whether or not he will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month. “Maybe it won't happen, maybe it won't happen,” he said while hosting a lunch for Republican Party senators at the White House. However, Trump also said he was expecting “to do well" in negotiations with China. 

  “I'm going to see President Xi in two weeks... We’re going to meet in South Korea,” he said. ‘We’re going to talk about a lot of things they want to discuss.” Trump is travelling in the next several days to Japan and South Korea, in part, to finalise the terms of investments from those countries as part of an agreement to minimise the tariff rates Trump is charging on foreign goods. Hang Seng dropped 0.9% to 25,781.77, while the Shanghai Composite index inched down less than 0.1%. Nikkei 225 wavered between slight gains and losses a day after its parliament chose Sanae Takaichi to be its first female prime minister. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.7% to 9,030.00, while Kospi rose 1.6% to 3,883.68.