Asian stocks have fallen for the most part due to poor performance in Australia’s banking sector and by raw materials companies. It is important to note that the poor showing from raw materials stems from earlier worse than expected data from China last week. Investors are worried that a slowdown in the world’s manufacturing powerhouse will cause a drop in the demand for production inputs. Furthermore, China also imports a fair amount of other inputs from all over Asia. Thus, when the Chinese economy look weak, equities around the pacific tend to fall. The Nikkei dropped 0.36%, the Hang Seng climbed 0.15%, and the ASX 200 fell 1.28%.
European markets are also going down today, though for different reasons. Tension in the Ukraine has flared up, with masked Pro-Russian gunman killing a Ukrainian soldier and wounding others. Given the nature of the incident, many are worried that the crisis could escalate quickly and possibly affect the flow of natural gas into Europe – an occurrence that would be devastating for both Russia and the EU. Aside from this, investors digested better than expected Eurozone industrial production data, but bullish sentiment was not strong enough to offset anxiety over Eastern Europe. The Stoxx 50 is down 0.73%, the FTSE is down 0.56%, and the DAX is down 0.79%.
Though American markets have not opened yet, last week US indices closed lower due to a “technology selloff”: the Dow dropped 0.89%, and the S&P 500 dropped 0.95%, and the Nasdaq closed 1.34%. Today, US indices may also be affected by the situation in the Ukraine. Furthermore, look out for Retail Sales data coming out at 12:30 GMT, as this will be a good gauge of the strength of the US economy.
April 14, 2014 – Indices News
Asian stocks have fallen for the most part due to poor performance in Australia’s banking sector and by raw materials companies. It is important to note that the poor showing from raw materials stems from earlier worse than expected data from China last week. Investors are worried that a slowdown in the world’s manufacturing powerhouse will cause a drop in the demand for production inputs. Furthermore, China also imports a fair amount of other inputs from all over Asia. Thus, when the Chinese economy look weak, equities around the pacific tend to fall. The Nikkei dropped 0.36%, the Hang Seng climbed 0.15%, and the ASX 200 fell 1.28%.
European markets are also going down today, though for different reasons. Tension in the Ukraine has flared up, with masked Pro-Russian gunman killing a Ukrainian soldier and wounding others. Given the nature of the incident, many are worried that the crisis could escalate quickly and possibly affect the flow of natural gas into Europe – an occurrence that would be devastating for both Russia and the EU. Aside from this, investors digested better than expected Eurozone industrial production data, but bullish sentiment was not strong enough to offset anxiety over Eastern Europe. The Stoxx 50 is down 0.73%, the FTSE is down 0.56%, and the DAX is down 0.79%.
Though American markets have not opened yet, last week US indices closed lower due to a “technology selloff”: the Dow dropped 0.89%, and the S&P 500 dropped 0.95%, and the Nasdaq closed 1.34%. Today, US indices may also be affected by the situation in the Ukraine. Furthermore, look out for Retail Sales data coming out at 12:30 GMT, as this will be a good gauge of the strength of the US economy.
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