Markets Are Down

MIKE BIRD

 OCT. 23, 2014

REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger

Good morning! European markets are down early Thursday, after a similar drop in Asia overnight.

Here’s the scorecard, so far: 

France’s CAC 40 is down 0.60%

Spain’s IBEX is down 0.54%

Italy’s FTSE MIB is down 0.47%

Britain’s FTSE 100 is down 0.91%

Germany’s DAX is down 0.56%

In Asia, the Nikkei closed down 0.37% and the Hang Seng is currently down 0.59%

S&P futures are up 0.19%, and Dow futures are climbing 0.16% higher. 

Eurozone flash PMIs are out, it’s good news for Germany, which looks like it’s struggling a little less, and awful news for France, which increasingly looks like it’s in recession.

UK retail sales are out at 4:30 a.m. ET, with analysts expecting a 0.1% drop from August to September. 

Later Thursday morning, in the US there are initial jobless numbers at 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by the house price index half an hour later. At 9:45 a.m. ET, Markit’s manufacturing PMI figures will be released, with analysts expecting a 57 print, slightly down from last month.