A roundup of trading on major world markets:
NEW YORK – Wall Street is lower, as oil prices slip and weak Chinese data rekindles fears of a global economic slowdown led by the world’s second-biggest economy.
China’s February trade performance was far worse than economists had expected, with exports tumbling the most in over six years. The report weighed on markets worldwide.
US crude fell nearly three per cent, while Brent was off more than two per cent, as major oil producers sparred over a potential output freeze.
“The data this morning has dampened sentiment more so than anything else at this point in terms of confirming some of the concerns regarding growth in China,” said Ryan Larson, head of US equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago.
“Equities, at least in the United States, are somewhat taking their cues from oil pulling back slightly,” Larson said.
In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 88.14 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 16,985.81.
The S&P 500 was down 16.79 points, or 0.84 per cent, at 1,984.97. The index was set to snap a five-day streak of gains not seen since October.
The Nasdaq Composite index was down 44.96 points, or 0.95 per cent, at 4,663.30.
LONDON – Britain’s top stock market index fell as big mining companies came under pressure after a report showed exports had fallen in China, the world’s biggest consumer of metals.
The FTSE 100 index was down 0.9 per cent at 6,125.44 points by its close on Tuesday, in line with the broader European market.
The FTSE is down nearly two per cent since the start of 2016 and 14 per cent below a record high reached in April 2015, as expectations of a slowdown in China weigh on world stock markets.
Chinese exports fell in February by the most in more than six years, data showed on Tuesday, just days after world leaders sought to reassure investors that the outlook for China’s economy is solid.
“Global markets have been rattled by the sharp decline in China’s exports, which reinforced the lingering concerns over the slowing pace of growth in the world’s second-largest economy,” FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga said.
Mining stocks were particularly weak.
HONG KONG – Global stock markets have fallen after another batch of weak data from China reinforced persistent concerns about a possible slowdown in the global economy.
China’s February trade performance was far worse than economists expected, with exports tumbling the most in over six years, days after top leaders sought to reassure investors about the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy.
The safe-haven Japanese yen rose while the low-yielding euro gained against the US dollar on Tuesday as the downbeat Chinese trade data fuelled concerns about the state of global demand, weighing on appetite for riskier assets and currencies.
“At the moment we’re in a bear stock market. Everyone’s looking for an excuse to sell out, and the reason today for a lot of investors is the weak China data,” said Andreas Clenow, hedge fund principal and trader at ACIES Asset Management.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell nearly a per cent,
The Hang Seng index fell 0.7 per cent, to 20,011.58, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.4 per cent, to 8505.22 points.
Both the blue-chip CSI300 index and the Shanghai Composite Index erased early losses of more than 2 per cent, and ended the day up 0.1 per cent, at 3,107.67 points and 2,901.39 points, respectively.
WELLINGTON – The S&P/NZX 50 Index advanced 27.8 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 6,446.73.
