Iraq violence sends stocks down, oil up

Violence in Iraq shook markets on Thursday. US stocks fell, the S&P 500 declining 0.7 percent. West Texas Intermediate oil rose 2 percent.

Economic data on Thursday were mostly positive though.

In the US, retail sales rose 0.3 percent in May after having jumped 0.5 percent in April. However, excluding auto and gas, sales were unchanged in May.

In the euro area, industrial production rose 0.8 percent in April after having fallen 0.4 percent.

In China, new local-currency bank loans rose 12.4 percent in May while M2 money supply rose 13.4 percent. Aggregate total social financing fell to 1.4 trillion yuan in May from 1.55 trillion yuan in April.

However, in Japan, core machinery orders fell 9.1 percent in April after having jumped a record 19.1 percent in March.