U.S. stock prices held firm on Thursday after the Dow and Standard & Poor's 500 reached record intraday highs, while crude fell below $80 a barrel for the first time in four years on further signs of a slowdown in China's economy, Reuters reported. Data from Beijing showed below-forecast factory output and investment growth at a near-13-year low, reinforcing signs that the world's second-biggest economy would have its weakest growth in almost 24 years this year. Brent crude has fallen more than 30 percent since June. Falling energy costs, while a positive for consumers, have raised concerns about profits of major oil companies and their capital spending, analysts said. "Eighty dollars is the pain threshold," said Alexandre Baradez, chief market analyst at IG France. Brent crude was last down $2.02 or 2.51 percent at $78.36 a barrel, while U.S. oil futures fell $1.88 or 2.44 percent to $75.30. Top European shares closed up 0.2 percent at 1,346.56, reversing an earlier decline driven by a 1.7 percent drop in an index on regional oil and gas shares. Encouraging sales results from Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, offset weakness in the energy sector on Wall Street and some concerns the market is overstretched. In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average dipped 3.14 points, or 0.02 percent, to 17,609.06, the S&P 500 was down 4.74 points, or 0.23 percent, to 2,033.51 and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.78 points, or 0.04 percent, to 4,673.35. Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei index raced to fresh seven-year highs after Jiji news agency reported Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appears to have decided to call an early election amid mounting expectations he would postpone a planned sales tax hike. Worries about weak price growth in the euro zone were evident in a European Central Bank survey of forecasters released Thursday that intensified speculation the ECB would embark on more action to avert deflation. The yield on 10-year German Bunds was little changed at 0.800 percent. The yield on U.S. 10-year Treasuries slipped 1.5 basis points to 2.35 percent. Speculation about a snap election in Japan pulled the yen toward a recent seven-year low against the dollar before the greenback briefly retreated on a bigger-than-expected rise in weekly domestic jobless claims. The dollar was last up 0.2 percent at 115.72 yen. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies. The euro gained 0.2 percent at $1.2466, while sterling hit a 14-month low at $1.5694. Safe-haven gold rose 0.3 percent to $1,163.75 an ounce , holding above Friday's 4-1/2-year low of $1,131.85. -- SPA 21:37 LOCAL TIME 18:37 GMT تغريد
