Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news US stocks fell around 0.3% from their 5 year highs overnight after very weak US manufacturing data and more signs of divisions within Europe.
The Empire State Index of manufacturing activity in the New York, northern New Jersey and southern Connecticut from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed another slump in new orders. The index fell to minus 10.41, the lowest since April 2009 and down from 5.85 in August. See more here at Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, nerves about the European crisis bubbled to the surface again after a meeting of European finance ministers in Cyprus broke up without agreement on a timetable towards a European banking union and divisions over the role of the European Central Bank and the format of expected bailouts for Spain and Italy. See more here at Businessweek.
Elsehwere, tensions between China and Japan are at boiling point over who owns the disputed Diaoyu Islands in the seas between Japan and China. State-run media in China have whipped national anti-Japanese feeling into a frenzy, sparking a wave of protests and riots against Japanese owned factories and businesses in China.
Japan's Mazda, Canon, Panasonic, Toyota and Honda shut factories in China overnight, causing a slump in Chinese stock markets. See more on the riots and the dispute here at Bloomberg and here at Reuters.
The disputes put at risk more than US$340 billion worth of trade between the countries and risks disrupting global supply chains for many manufactured goods where the goods are designed in Japan and manufactured in China.
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