Global mkts fall on growth concerns, Greece uncertainty

The US and European equity markets closed lower Monday on economic growth concerns, uncertainty on Greece and Spain.

German IFO data for September was not encouraging. IFO business confidence index fell to 101.4 as against 102.3 in August while Current conditions index went down to 110.3 versus 111.1 during the same period.

There has not been any clarity on Spain bailout; German officials denied talk of allowing ESM to leverage.

The International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde says global growth forecasts to be cut in October review. Current year forecast of 3.5% global growth also to be revised downward, she says.

G20 finance ministers officials meet; they said central bank action is unlikely to be enough and will need more by governments'.

US data too was not supportive yesterday. Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey stood at minus 0.9 in September as against consensus +0.5% in previous month.

Chicago Fed National Activity Index for August came in at minus 0.87 as against minus 0.12 MoM.

US markets at close: Dow Jones fell 0.15% to 13,558.9 and S&P 500 Index was down 0.22% to 1,456.9. Nasdaq Composite lost 0.6%

European markets at close: DAX slipped 0.5% and CAC dropped 0.9% while FTSE was down 0.2%. Spain tanked 1.1% and Italy moved down 0.8%.

SGX Nifty and Asian markets were flat today

Currencies

Euro hit a low below 1.29 against the US dollar yesterday at 1.289 on German data.

Euro recovered today and was trading at 1.294 to the dollar

Dollar saw marginal improvement yesterday, hitting a high of 79.76.

But dollar got back to 79.4 today morning

Commodities

Growth worries weighed on commodities. CRB Index was down 1% yesterday 

Brent crude was down 1.4% to USD 109.8 a barrel while WTI crude went down 1% to USD 92 a barrel

Gold fell 0.6% to USD 1760 an ounce level

LME Copper slipped 1.2% while US Copper declined 1.5%

What to watch out for

UK Home Prices

German Consumer Confidence

S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index

US Consumer Confidence

Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index