Markets fall as China slows, US retail sales rebound

Markets were mostly weak on Thursday amid continuing concerns over Ukraine and slower growth in China.

The S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent and Russia’s MICEX Index fell 2 percent to the lowest level since May 2010.

Thursday had started with economic data from China that reinforced concerns of a slowdown in its economy.

Industrial production rose 8.6 percent in the first two months of the year compared with the same period a year earlier. That was 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.

Mixed economic data from the US on Thursday also did little to boost markets.

Retail sales rose 0.3 percent in February, suggesting that the economy is recovering after a winter slowdown. However, January retail sales were revised to show a bigger-than-initially-reported fall of 0.6 percent.

Encouragingly, another report showed that initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 9,000 last week to 315,000, the lowest in more than three months.