Closing Market Update: Global Equities Lose Ground over Growth Concerns

(CEP News) - A lack of top tier economic data on Monday provided little direction for European stocks and U.S. equity futures, which closed in negative territory. The weakness in equity markets helped boost safe haven currencies.

It was a quiet day with both the U.S. and Canadian markets closed for holiday. U.S. markets were closed in recognition of the Presidents Day long weekend. In Canada, the TSX was closed as several provinces observed provincial holidays.

According to market strategists Japanese fourth-quarter GDP, which contracted by its fastest pace in 35 years, has helped to keep pressure on global equity markets.

Japanese growth fell by 3.3% quarter-over-quarter, below economists' expectations for a 3.1% drop. On an annualized basis, GDP fell by 12.7%, against expectations for an 11.6% decrease.

Asian markets were lower, with the Japanese Nikkei closing down 29 points to 7750 and the Hang Seng Index down 99 points to 13456.

A report from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) did not help improve sentiment. According to the report, Germany's economy faces a contraction of "clearly more than 3%". DIW also revised down its forecasts for first quarter growth, which it expects to shrink 1.4% compared to the previous quarter.

David Jones, chief market strategist from IG Index, pointed out that the UK also received bad news about prospective growth in 2009. The CBI said it expects the UK slowdown to be worse than expected and that GDP could fall 3.3%.

Despite the grim news, equities remained range-bound, which Jones said could be interpreted as good news.

European stock markets closed lower, with the Eurostoxx down 27 points to 1939, the UK FTSE 100 down 55 points to 4135 and the German DAX down 47 points to 4367.

The only data releases in North America were Canadian manufacturing shipments and international securities transactions. Both reports highlight the grim state of the Canadian economy, but still had little impact on currency markets, analysts noted.

Foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities by $2.835 billion - more than twice the $1.4 billion expected, Statistics Canada reported.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported that Canadian manufacturing shipments dropped 8.0% in December, the steepest fall since 1992 and worse than the 5.3% expected.

U.S. equity futures were weaker across the board, with Dow Futures down 20 points to 7759, S&P futures down 10 points to 809 and NASDAQ futures down 20 points to 1208

Weaker equity markets took their toll on currencies, which helped boost the safe haven currencies like the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen. Both were up across the board.

Light volume has helped markets remain range bound. EUR/USD was trading near the lower end of its range but continued to hold gains above the key support level of 1.2760.

Neil Mellor, currency strategist from Bank of New York Mellon, said the euro does look vulnerable to move lower as long as fear remains in the market.

The euro is down 0.0101 to 1.2762 against the U.S. dollar, down 0.0011 to 1.5880 against the Canadian dollar, down 0.0006 to 0.8958 against the pound sterling and is lower by 1.10 to 117.19 against the yen.

The Canadian dollar has also remained stuck, testing the higher end of its current channel.

Adam Cole, global head of FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said the Canadian dollar has held up fairly well compared to other commodity currencies, but he expects that to change, with the loonie at risk of weakening.

"We are expecting the USD/CAD to break through 1.25 and ultimately our call is that we test the 1.30 level," Cole said.

The Canadian dollar is down 0.0092 to 0.8042 against the U.S. dollar (1.2446 USD/CAD) and down 0.53 to 73.82 against the yen.

The U.S. dollar is down 0.05 to 91.84 against the yen and the Dollar Index is up 0.619 to 86.660.

The pound sterling is down 0.0108 to 1.4247 against the U.S. dollar and down 0.0009 to 1.7725 against the Canadian dollar.