After fall last week, stocks face further test with Crimean vote

Stocks fell last week amid mounting tensions in Ukraine and signs of an economic slowdown in China.

The MSCI All-Country World Index fell 2.4 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 2.0 percent while the STOXX Europe 600 fell 3.3 percent.

Economic data from the United States last week were mixed. Retail sales rose 0.3 percent in February but after having fallen 0.6 percent in January. Also, a preliminary reading of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment showed a decline to 79.9 in March from 81.6 in February.

In the euro area, a report last week showed that industrial production fell 0.2 percent in January after having fallen 0.4 percent in December.

Economic data from China showed that the economy has slowed. Industrial production rose 8.6 percent in the first two months of the year compared with the same period a year earlier, the weakest start to a year since 2009. Retail sales rose 11.8 percent, the slowest pace for the period since 2004. Fixed-asset investment increased 17.9 percent, the smallest in 13 years for the first two months.

Also weighing on investors' minds were developments in Crimea.

On Sunday, a referendum was held in Crimea to decide whether the region would break with Ukraine and join Russia. With three quarters of the votes counted, Reuters reports that 96 percent had voted in favour of the move.

This result is likely to raise tension between Russia and the West, which could in turn lead to further anxiety in financial markets.