Markets mixed with economic data “skewed to the negative”

Markets were mixed on Thursday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent but the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.6 percent.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.9 percent but the Nikkei 225 rose 0.1 percent.

Sahak Manuelian, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities, noted that economic data this week, “by and large, has been skewed to the negative”.

Paul Kitney, chief equity strategist of Asia Pacific research at Daiwa Capital Markets, noted that global trade volumes have declined for three consecutive months year-on-year, “the first time since the global financial crisis”.