Friday 22 February 2019

Markets fall amid “intensifying recession fears”

Markets mostly fell on Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent and the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.3 percent.

Earlier in Asia, markets were mixed. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 percent but the Shanghai Composite fell 0.3 percent.

Sentiment was dampened by weak US economic data.

“Mainly it’s about the bad economic reports and intensifying recession fears,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at The Leuthold Group.

A report from the US Commerce Department showed that orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft dropped 0.7 percent in December.

Another report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed that its manufacturing activity index dropped to -4.1 in February from 17.0 in January.

A third report from the National Association of Realtors showed that existing home sales dropped 1.2 percent last month to the lowest level since November 2015.

A fourth report from the Conference Board showed that its index of US leading economic indicators dropped 0.1 percent in January.

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