Global Market Report - February 28, 2018

Asia

Markets in Asia-Pacific reacted to a nervous day on Wall Street, as well as disappointing manufacturing data from China and Japan. China’s February manufacturing data missed forecasts and showed that the sector only just expanded in the month affected by the Chinese Lunar New Year. The reading was a 20-month low for manufacturing. The non-manufacturing sector showed stronger growth but still missed forecasts with a reading of 54.4, where 50 marks the difference between expansion and contraction. In Japan, housing starts in January were over 13% lower than in the same month in January 2017. In percentage terms, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost the most in the region, moving back towards the 22,000 points level. Hong Kong shares were also down by over 1%, while China was dragged down by weakness in the Shanghai Composite Index.

Europe

Exchanges in Europe joined in the global selloff but losses were modest than in Asia amid brighter news on the French economy and German unemployment. The UK’s FTSE 100 was off around 20 points at 7264 in midmorning trading amid a flurry of corporate announcements. While shares in wealth manager St James’s Place (STJ) were the biggest riser on the FTSE 100 after upbeat results, ITV (ITV) was the biggest faller after a drop in profits. Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey (TW) was not far behind as investors detected a flagging in momentum in the sector this year.

North America

Jerome Powell’s first testimony as Federal reserve chairman was taken as hawkish by financial markets. Nevertheless, the US indices are expected to rebound on Wednesday, but not enough to save the S&P 500 and Dow Jones from a near-3% monthly drop in February.