US indices slip as soft data undermine market sentiment
US stock market closed lower on Monday as auto sales fell to a nearly three year low. The dollar inched higher: the live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, edged up 0.05% to 100.49. The Dow Jones average slipped less than 0.1% to 20650.2 paring earlier losses, led by DuPont (NYSE:DD) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) shares. S&P 500 fell 0.2% to 2357.71 with consumer discretionary and materials stocks leading the decliners as seven out of 11 sectors finished in the red. The Nasdaq index dropped 0.3% to 5894.68.
European stocks follow bank shares lower
European stocks fell on Monday snapping four day winning streak led by bank stocks. Both the euro and British Pound weakened against the dollar. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.5%. The DAX 30 lost 0.5% to close at 12257.2. France’s CAC 40 ended 0.7% lower and UK’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5% settling at 7282.69.
Asian markets lower ahead of US-China summit
Asian stock indices are down today amid uncertainty about US-China trade prospects before a meeting between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this week. Last Friday Trump signed executive orders aimed at curbing what he has described as unfair trade practices, and tweeted that the highly anticipated meeting "will be a very difficult one." Nikkei dropped 0.9% to 18810.25, 10 week low, with yen extending gains against the dollar and hurting exporter stocks. China and Hong Kong markets were closed for holidays. Australia’s ASX All Ordinaries ended closed 1.2% higher with the Australian dollar extending losses against the dollar. Australian shares are 0.3% lower after the central bank left interest rates steady at a record low 1.5% as expected, despite a statistics bureau report country's trade surplus more than doubled in February compared to previous month as exports of gold and minerals rebounded, while imports dropped.
Oil prices lower
Oil futures prices are extending losses today after Libya's crude output increased as state-owned National Oil Corp lifted a force majeure on loadings of Sharara oil from the Zawiya terminal in the west of the country. Libya resumed output at 700 thousand barrels a day over the weekend as its Sharara oil field production was restarted. Prices fell on Monday with May Brent crude closing 0.8% lower at $53.12 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange.