Europe Stocks Decline as Investors Weigh Ukraine Violence
European stocks declined, after yesterday’s advance, as investors weighed violence in eastern Ukraine and further evidence of a slowdown in China’s economy. U.S. futures and Asian shares were little changed.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.4 percent to 328.61 at 9:16 a.m. in London. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures lost 0.1 percent and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.1 percent.
“You have this huge uncertainty from the geopolitical front and China, which is pulling the market in a negative direction,” Witold Bahrke, who helps oversee $55 billion as a senior strategist at PFA Asset Management in Copenhagen, said in a phone interview. “There is a lack of conviction among investors. Sentiment is still tilted to the negative direction after the escalation in Ukraine at the weekend.”
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Ukrainian crisis by telephone yesterday without any substantial breakthrough, according to statements from their offices, as fighting between pro-Russian separatists and government forces highlighted instability in east Ukraine.
China’s broadest measure of new credit fell 19 percent in March from a year earlier and money supply grew at the slowest pace on record, according to the People’s Bank of China. Data tomorrow is forecast to show economic growth slowed in the first quarter.
A report from the ZEW Center for European Economic Research at 11 a.m. in Mannheim may show a measure of German investor confidence declined this month to 45 from 46.6 in March, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Data at 8:30 a.m. New York time may show the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s so-called Empire State manufacturing index increased to 8 this month from 5.61 in March, economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast.
Source: bloomberg
