By Jason Clenfield and Adam Haigh - Sep 10, 2012 11:17 AM GMT+0400
European stocks fell and the euro snapped a three-day advance amid renewed concern the region’s debt crisis will worsen. Emerging-market currencies strengthened and copper rose on speculation the world’s biggest economies will use monetary easing to combat slowdowns.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.1 percent as of 8:08 a.m. in London, retreating after its biggest weekly gain in three months. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) added 0.1 percent, while futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.3 percent. Brazil’s real rose against all 16 major peers and South Korea’s won reached a one-month high. Copper climbed 0.9 percent.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rallied 2.7 percent on Sept. 7, the most since Dec. 1, after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers agreed to an unlimited bond-purchase program as they try to regain control of interest rates in the euro area. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras meets officials from the nation’s creditors today after failing to secure agreement from coalition partners on spending cuts. China’s industrial outputgrew in August at the slowest rate since 2009, while Japan’s economy expanded in the second quarter at half the pace initially estimated. U.S. employers added fewer jobs than economists forecast last month, adding pressure on theFederal Reserve to spur growth when they meet Sept. 12-13.
“Following the weak U.S. jobs report, the backdrop is ideal to act this week and deliver more quantitative easing,” said George Boubouras, Melbourne-based head of investment strategy at UBS AG’s Australian wealth management unit. “This week is looking like the last window for the Fed to act” before the U.S. presidential election in November, he said.
China Pressure
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced a third day as signs of slowing growth in the U.S., China and Japan fanned speculation for more stimulus in the world’s biggest economies. The gauge on Sept. 8 rallied 2.7 percent, the most this year.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said on Sept. 8 that the economy faces “notable downward pressure.” The nation’s industrial output increased 8.9 percent in August from a year earlier, the least in six months, and imports fell for the first time since January, according to data released yesterday and today.
About three stocks fell for every two that rose today on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, which climbed 2.3 percent last week as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi unveiled a bond- buying plan aimed at lowering borrowing costs in the euro region.
The 17-nation euro weakened 0.2 percent to $1.2791 after rising 2 percent in the previous three days. Greece’s Samaras meets officials from the nation’s creditors after failing to secure agreement from his coalition partners on 11.5 billion euros ($14.7 billion) of spending cuts required by lenders.
Real, Won
Brazil’s real rose 0.13 percent to 2.028 per dollar and South Korea’s won gained 0.09 percent to 1,129.36. Thailand’s baht appreciated 0.5 percent to 31.08, earlier touching a four- month high of 30.89.
The Dollar Index was near a four-month low after Labor Department figures on Sept. 7 showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 96,000 in August, less than the median estimate of 130,000 in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said on Aug. 31 that the weak jobs market posed a “grave concern.”
A gauge of market expectations for additional central bank stimulus rose to 99 percent in August, the highest ever, according to Citigroup Inc. The measure increased to 82 percent in the months before the Fed announced a second round of asset purchases in November 2010.
Gold for immediate delivery was little changed at $1,735.57 an ounce, near a six-month high of $1,741.70 reached Sept. 7.
“Gold’s had an impressive run,” said Sun Yonggang, a macroeconomic strategist at Everbright Futures Co., a unit of China’s largest state-owned investment group. “The expectation of more loosening of monetary policy in China and the U.S. will keep prices elevated.”
Japan’s gross domestic product grew an annualized 0.7 percent in the three months through June, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today, less than a preliminary calculation of 1.4 percent. The median forecast of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for expansion to be revised to 1 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Clenfield in Tokyo at jclenfield@bloomberg.net; Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net