Stocks down in Asia

(CNN) -- Stocks in the major Asian and Pacific markets were mostly down in trading Friday, with four indices showing declines and one posting gains.

At midmorning, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 2.9 percent, Tokyo's Nikkei was down 2.7 percent, and the All Ordinaries in Australia was down 1.1 percent. The KOSPI index in Seoul was down 0.6 percent.

The Taiwan Weighted was up 1.7 percent.

The trading in the Asian and Pacific markets followed a rally Thursday in the United States. Investors cheered news of record earnings by Exxon Mobil, easier credit and a report showing the economy shrank at a slower pace than expected in the third quarter.

The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 190 points, or 2.1 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.5 percent. Watch an explanation for recent gains »

The 0.3 percent decline of the gross domestic product wasn't quite as bad as forecasts. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had estimated GDP would plunge 0.5 percent.

But the fall was the weakest performance for the economy since the last recession seven years ago.

That compared with a 2.8 percent growth rate in the second quarter when economic stimulus checks and strong exports spurred by a weak dollar resulted in solid growth that vanished in the latest reading.

The latest reading was yet another warning sign of a recession and marked only the fifth quarter in more than 17 years in which GDP fell below zero. Much of the impact of the recent crisis in financial and credit markets was not reflected in this reading, which reflects the period ending September 30.

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil, the oil services giant, reported a profit of $14.83 billion, the biggest quarterly profit in U.S. history.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed about 1.1 percent up and Frankfurt's DAX 30 was about 1.2 percent higher. In Paris, the CAC 40 was closed almost even.

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