Saturday 25 October 2014

Markets mixed, UK economy decelerates, US and Chinese home prices fall

Markets were mixed on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent to extend its gain for the week to 4.1 percent, the best since January 2013. However, the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.3 percent to trim its weekly gain to 2.7 percent, still the best this year.

Economic data on Friday were also mixed.

The UK economy decelerated in the third quarter, growing by 0.7 percent compared with 0.9 percent in the second quarter. The services industry grew 0.7 percent in the third quarter, down from 1.1 percent in the previous quarter, while manufacturing output grew 0.4 percent, down from 0.5 percent.

In the US, new home sales rose 0.2 percent in September but data for prior months were revised down. The median sales prices fell 4 percent in September from a year ago, the first decline since April and the largest since January 2012.

Chinese home prices also fell in September. Prices fell month-on-month in a record 69 of 70 major cities monitored by the government, up from 68 in August. As a result, average home prices were down 1.3 percent in September from a year earlier, the first such drop since November 2012.

In Germany, though, GfK reported that its consumer sentiment indicator rose to 8.5 going into November from 8.4 in October.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

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