Stocks fall even as Chinese monetary easing seen "hitting mark"

Markets were mostly down on Thursday.

The S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent and the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.8 percent.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite fell 1.4 percent but the Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 percent.

Thursday's sharp fall in Chinese stocks notwithstanding, a Bloomberg report suggests that there is "increasing evidence the People's Bank of China's year-and-a-half-long easing cycle is hitting the mark", with monetary conditions looking the loosest since late 2011, the seven-day repo rate confined to a narrow range since August, consumer price inflation forecast to quicken again in March, property prices rebounding and financial markets stabilising.