Global markets witness mild unwinding amid lack of newsflow

By Gautam Broker, Research Analyst at CNBC-TV18

Global markets saw mild unwinding on Monday amid lack of newsflow.

Crude topped headlines after sharp sell-off on high volumes, which fell by nearly USD 5 a barrel.

Exchanges denied any technical error. US regulators have been probing the matter.

Talk of strategic reserve release could be a likely cause but US government denied these talks.

US data was weak yesterday. Empire State Manufacturing Index fell to minus 10.4 in September as against minus 5.85 in August and forecast of improvement to minus 2

Key concern was new orders, which declined minus 14 from minus 5.5 MoM and shipments slipped to 2.75 from 4.1.

Spain's 10-year bond yields went back to above 6%, up 30 basis points from lows of 5.7%.

Risk of a further downgrade by Moody's said to be looming large, which may happen by month end  

Eurozone officials reiterated no additional funding for Greece; but may be given more time to meet targets.

US markets at close: Dow Jones went down 0.3% to 13,553.1 and S&P 500 Index was down 0.3% to 1,461.2. Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2%

European markets at close on Monday: DAX slipped 0.1% and CAC was down 0.8%. FTSE plummeted 0.4%. Spain lost 0.1% and Italy moved down  0.9%

SGX Nifty was up by 0.15% at 5620 today. Asian markets were mixed.

Currencies

Euro went down 0.2% to around 1.31 against the US dollar. It was at 1.3097 to the dollar today morning

Dollar Index saw mild rebound to 79 from low of 78.6.

Yen was weaker, hitting a low of 78.9 to the dollar. It was at 78.6 today ahead of Bank of Japan decision tomorrow.

Australian dollar was down to 1.047 yesterday from high of 1.062 on Friday.

Commodities

Brent crude from a high of USD 117 a barrel saw a low of USD 111.5 a barrel intraday yesterday.

It tanked nearly USD 4 a barrel in a matter of 3 minutes.

WTI crude saw a low of USD 94.6 a barrel from a high of USD 99.5 a barrel yesterday. Both varieties recovered but ended firmly in the red.

Brent crude closed at USD 113.8 a barrel and WTI crude at USD 96.6 a barrel

Gold too saw profit booking, which was down around USD 1760 an ounce from high of USD 1777.5 an ounce

LME Copper declined 1% yesterday

What to watch out for

Germany ZEW economic sentiment September

US Current Account

NAHB housing market index

API Inventory report

US weekly Retail sales