Stocks: Monday's review

Majors close:
Nikkei 225 -16.97 -0.18% 9,504.97
CAC 40     -12.61     -0.32%     3,938.37
DAX -5.07 -0.07% 7,158.40

Japanese stocks swung between gains and losses amid speculation shares are oversold, and as comments by the Group of Eight nations tempered concern that a U.S. economic recovery is slowing.
Sony Corp. fell 2.1% after a report showed U.S. home-buying plunged more than forecast and the yen advanced against the dollar.
Honda Motor Co., Japan’s No. 2 automaker, dropped 1.3% after hackers accessed personal data of customers in Canada.
Sumitomo Realty & Development Co. rallied 1.2% after being raised to “overweight” from “equal- weight” at Barclays Capital.

European stocks were little changed after four straight weeks of losses for the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index, as chemical makers and renewable-energy companies gained while banks declined.
BASF SE (BAS), the world’s biggest maker of chemicals, rose 1.2%.
Renewable Energy Corp. ASA and Vestas Wind Systems A/S climbed more than 3% as Germany set 2022 as the final date to close its nuclear reactors.
Alpha Bank SA tumbled 9.1% as the International Monetary Fund reviewed Greece’s efforts toward meeting fiscal targets.
Speculation that Greece will restructure its debt and concern the outlook for other economies in the region is worsening has weighed on stocks since February.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said he’ll press ahead with new austerity measures after failing to win backing from the main opposition parties. An international panel of inspectors has concluded that the debt-laden country has missed all the fiscal targets agreed in its rescue plan, Der Spiegel reported May 29.
Markets in the U.K. were closed to observe the Spring Bank Holiday.

U.S. markets were Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.