European Markets Are Climbing, Asian Markets Closed Down, US Futures Are Down

MIKE BIRD

 OCT. 21, 2014

mariachily / Flickr

It’s another rocky morning: Most of the big European stock indexes opened up, but have now climbed into positive territory. This follows news that Chinese growth has fallen to a six-year low, which came out overnight.

Here’s the scorecard, so far: 

France’s CAC 40 is up 0.44%

Spain’s IBEX is down 0.08%

Italy’s FTSE MIB is up 0.52%

Britain’s FTSE 100 is up 0.16%

Germany’s DAX is up 0.37%

The Nikkei ended down 2.03%, with no repeat of Monday’s impressive climb. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is currently down 0.30% 

US stock futures have taken a hit: Both Dow and S&P futures are down 0.43%. 

UK public borrowing figures will be released at 4:30 a.m. ET, with analysts expecting a deficit of £9.2 billion ($14.9 billion). The figures are increasingly important as Britain heads toward its 2015 general election, with public spending a major issue.

In the US, home sales figures will be released at 10 a.m. ET, giving some idea of how the housing market performed in September. Analysts are expecting 5.1 million sales.