Morning Report 22 Oct 21: Stocks battle headwinds as investors grapple with rising inflationary expectations

US sharemarkets were mixed on Thursday. The Dow Jones index fell by 6 points or less than 0.1%. The S&P 500 index gained 0.3% to a record closing high. And the Nasdaq index added 94 points or 0.6%. European sharemarkets closed lower on Thursday, the German Dax index slid 0.3%. And the UK FTSE index lost 0.5%, despite strong earnings from Barclays (-0.8%). In London trade shares in Rio Tinto (-4.8%) and BHP (-3.7%) both fell.

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