Wall Street has fallen sharply in early trading on global growth fears and the continuing Eurozone crisis, despite a better than expected US manufacturing snapshot.
The ISM-Chicago index of business activity rose from 56.5p in August to 60.4 in September, well above expectations of 55.5. New orders also rose, backlog fell, as did prices paid. Annalisa Piazza at Newedge Strategy said:
We rule out that the national ISM index will track today's upswing in the Chicago index (that also includes some services companies). However, today's data are encouraging as they seem to suggest that at least one part of the US economy is not deteriorating as fast as some fear.
But with the earlier news of a weak Chinese manufacturing survey, along with high Eurozone inflation and poor German retail sales, the US numbers have done little to support the market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is currently down 69 points - although off its worst levels - while the FTSE 100 is down 92.61 points at 5104.23.
