▸ Wall Street weak­ens as US gov­ern­ment shut­down con­tin­ues to hang over trad­ing

▸ French assets more stable after Mac­ron prom­ises to name prime min­is­ter

▸ Gold prices sur­render some ground after this year’s dizzy­ing rally

Global equit­ies edged lower yes­ter­day as the US gov­ern­ment shut­down con­tin­ued to hang over fin­an­cial mar­kets.

After reach­ing record highs on Wed­nes­day, Wall Street stocks slipped back, with the blue-chip S&P 500 index down 0.3 per cent and the tech-heavy Nas­daq Com­pos­ite fall­ing 0.4 per cent by early after­noon trad­ing in New York.

Fund man­agers said the shut­down — which has delayed the pub­lic­a­tion of key US eco­nomic data — meant investors were hold­ing off on mak­ing big bets ahead of third-quarter earn­ings sea­son, which will provide an indic­a­tion of the health of the world’s biggest eco­nomy.

“Investors are sus­pen­ded in anim­a­tion with the US gov­ern­ment shut­down and earn­ings sea­son kick­ing off next week,” said Arun Sai, senior multi-asset strategist at Pic­tet Asset Man­age­ment.

Stock mar­kets across the Atlantic also broadly weakened, with the region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 index fall­ing 0.4 per cent.

In Paris, mar­kets were more stable after Pres­id­ent Emmanuel Mac­ron prom­ised to name a new prime min­is­ter by today. The Cac 40 index edged 0.2 per cent lower.