Thursday, July 12, 2012

Economy fears hit global shares

US stocks fell on Thursday, hit by more warnings in the technology sector, while a rally in Procter & Gamble helped the blue-chip Dow cut its loss.

The Dow Jones industrial shed 31.26 points, or 0.25 percent, to 12,573.27 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 6.69 points, or 0.50 percent, to 1,334.76. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 21.79 points, or 0.75 percent, to close at 2,866.19.

European shares sold off and slipped into the red for the week as investors positioned for more gloomy economic data from China and scaled back hopes of imminent monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve.

Fed minutes published late on Wednesday showed the health of the world's biggest economy would have to worsen before the central bank launched a new quantitative easing programme, in spite of a series of weak economic and corporate reports.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index ended down 1 percent, while the MSCI world equity index was down 1.1 percent, its seventh day of declines in a row.

Japan's Nikkei share average posted its biggest fall in more than a month, dropping below major support at its 25-day moving average after the Bank of Japan only offered minor tweaks to its easing strategy.

The Nikkei declined 1.5 percent to 8,720.01, its biggest daily fall since June 8 and the sixth consecutive day of decline – the longest such streak since early April. The broader Topix index fell 1.3 percent to 747.49.