North Korea's nuclear test sent Asian markets reeling yesterday. AFP/CNA reports:
Asian stocks tumbled on Monday after North Korea defied international pressure and announced it had conducted a nuclear test, realising the region's worst fears...
In South Korea, the KOSPI index was down 2.41 percent after recovering from a near four percent slump...
The won also fell sharply - from 949 Friday to around 963 against the US dollar as investors dumped the local currency in reaction to North Korea's announcement that the test was carried out.
Bloomberg columnist Andy Mukherjee, however, has an interesting take on the matter, saying that "A Nuclear North Korea Is a Gift to Investors".
Markets elsewhere, however, showed little reaction and closed mostly up yesterday. Perhaps the economic data had something to do with it.
Germany saw its industrial production rise by the most in almost three years in August, reports Bloomberg.
Production jumped 1.9 percent from July, when it rose 0.8 percent, the Economy and Technology Ministry said today in Berlin. August's gain was the biggest since October 2003. Economists expected a 0.3 percent increase, according to the median of 40 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. From a year earlier, production rose 7.2 percent...
The Cologne-based IW economic institute today raised its forecast for German growth this year to 2.4 percent from 2 percent...
German exports slipped 0.1 percent in August from July, when they jumped 2.2 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists predicted a 0.2 percent gain.
In the UK, producer prices fell, reports Reuters.
British manufacturers' input prices fell at their sharpest monthly rate in nearly two years in September, helped by the biggest monthly drop in crude oil prices in more than three years, data showed on Monday...
The Office for National Statistics said input prices fell 1.8 percent on the month in September against expectations of a 1.5 percent drop. That took the annual rate of growth down to 5.2 percent from 7.3 percent in August, the slowest increase since December 2004.
Output prices slipped 0.3 percent last month, after a rise of 0.1 percent in August and were below expectations of a 0.1 percent rise. The annual rate of growth eased to 1.8 percent from 2.7 percent in August, its slowest rate in more than two years...
Separately, government data showed house prices in Britain rising 7.7 percent in August, chiming with strong readings from mortgage lenders Halifax and Nationwide which have shown a robust market in spite of August's increase in borrowing costs.
In the US, retail sales were up in September, according to another Reuters report.
Seasonal adjusted retail sales, excluding autos, grew 0.3 percent for a second straight month in September, below the preliminary reading of a 0.4 percent gain released a week ago, said SpendingPulse.
In dollar terms, September seasonally adjusted ex-auto sales reached $287.7 billion, up 5.3 percent from a year ago...
Factoring out gasoline and autos, retail sales improved 0.6 percent from August's levels, SpendingPulse said.
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