Asian markets followed the U.S. market’s Monday rout by suffering more losses. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 4.1 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite slid 2 percent.
Europe is turning in a mixed performance as the region received many economic reports. The euro zone September Business Survey came in at 105.6, higher than the expected 104.1, and Germany’s August Import Price Index was down 1.5 percent as expected. The U.K. FTSE is lower by 0.4 percent and the German DAX is up by 0.1 percent.
The U.S. stock market was trying to stage a rally in pre-market trading, but as the session opened, stocks began flipping back and forth. The S&P 500 moved up by 2 points to 1,881, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 19 points to 16,021 and the Nasdaq was flat at 4,543.
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In economic news, the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales report for last week came in down 1.5 percent, a little lower than the previous week’s negative 1.4 percent. Year-over-year, weekly sales were up 0.9 percent.
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