* China raises reserve requirement; growth outlook hit
* JPMorgan posts strong quarterly results, Intel too
* US retail sales rise, but fall short of expectation (Updates with U.S. trading)
By Al Yoon
NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - World shares wobbled and Treasuries rose on Friday after China's move to raise banks' reserves and a weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales report cooled enthusiasm about the global economic recovery.
A 47 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit at JPMorgan
Chase & Co.
Confidence in equity markets also sagged as the U.S. Commerce Department reported sales at retailers rose slightly less than expected in December. Sales for all of 2010 reversed two years of contraction, however, posting the biggest gain in more than a decade. [ID:nN1350517]
"The market is resilient," said Keith Springer, president of Springer Financial Advisors in Sacremento, California.
"You had had every ingredient to bring a decline, such as retail sales, yet it's holding up well," he said. "There is anticipation over more stellar earnings."
A soggy start to U.S. trading and in Europe came after China's 50-basis-point increase in required reserves forced its banks to lock up more of their cash with the central bank as Beijing hopes to drain the economy of excess money and tame rising prices. [ID:nTOE706030]
The tightening briefly hit copper prices, and speculation about such a move earlier sent Chinese stocks <.SSEC> down 1.29 percent. Coming off a 28-month high on Thursday, the MSCI All-Country World Index <.MIWD00000PUS> dipped 0.03 percent,
In the United States, the three major U.S. stock indexes were modestly higher in late morning trading, reversing earlier slight declines. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 19.45 points, or 0.17 percent, to 11,751.43 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> gained 3.26 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,287.02.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 6.41
points, or 0.23 percent, at 2,741.72, drawing some support a
day after Intel
The S&P MidCap 400 Index <.MID> hit an intraday record high of 926.78 in late morning trading, reflecting expectations for solid U.S. growth.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> dropped 0.09 percent, recovering some lossses as commodities, such as copper and oil bounced off earlier lows. Oil fell 55 cents, or 0.60 percent, to $90.85 per barrel.
Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> fell 0.86 percent after a surprisingly weak settlement of options for January and a stronger yen against the dollar trigger profit-taking.
The euro headed for its best week in more than 1-1/2 years on Friday and could extend gains after a string of successful debt auctions by struggling euro-zone nations calmed fears of the region's credit crisis.
The Australian dollar fell after China raised banks' reserve requirements and fostered speculation of cooler Chinese growth. Australia's strong trade links with China make it sensitive to Chinese growth expectations. See [ID:nTOE706030]
The euro earlier hit a one-month high of $1.3458
In late morning, though, the dollar had erased its losses
against both the euro and the yen, which some traders
attributed to position squaring ahead of a three-day weekend in
the United State. The euro
The dollar index <.DXY=>, which tracks the greenback's performance against a basket of major currencies, was up 0.09 percentg at 79.26.
U.S. Treasury debt prices rose after the retail sales data, and also as a Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan report showed consumer sentiment across the nation was rising less than expected this month.
"We thought we'd have a robust holiday season. This data is a reminder that the jobs situation is still an issue and that there are still problems in the economy," said Tyler Verbon, chief investment officer at Biltmore Capital Advisors in Princeton, New Jersey.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note yields that guide corporate and consumer borrowing costs dipped to 3.28 percent.
The reports are unlikely to budge the Federal Reserve from its $600 billion U.S. bond buying program aimed at accelerating growth and lowering the lofty jobless rate, analysts said. For details, see [ID:nN14146780]
The quantitative easing program, or "QE 2,' is a luxury liner for the financial companies," Springer Financial's Springer said. "What the Fed is doing is giving them a warchest."
(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau, Jessica Mortimer, Emelia Sithole and Simon Falush in London, Ian Chua in Sydney, and Wanfeng Zhou, Ryan Vlastelica and Karen Brettell in New York; Editing by Jan Paschal)