Friday 16 May 2014

Markets fall as eurozone growth disappoints, US industrial production declines

Markets fell on Thursday. The S&P 500 and the STOXX Europe 600 both fell 0.9 percent.

West Texas Intermediate oil also fell 0.9 percent while the yield on 10-year US Treasuries fell five basis points to 2.50 percent.

Markets fell amid some disappointing economic data on Thursday.

In the euro area, the economy grew just 0.2 percent in the first quarter, half as much as economists had forecast. While Germany grew 0.8 percent, France stalled, Italy contracted by 0.1 percent and the Netherlands shrank 1.4 percent.

The annual inflation rate in April for the euro area was confirmed at 0.7 percent.

In the US, the annual inflation rate jumped to 2.0 percent in April from 1.5 percent in March after the consumer price index rose 0.3 percent last month.

However, industrial production fell 0.6 percent in April after rising 0.9 percent in March and the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index fell to 45 in May, the weakest since May 2013, from 46 in April.

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