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Dow Jones down 0.6%, S&P 500 0.&%, Nasdaq 0.4%

23 March 2012 08:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Stock index futures pointed to a lower opening on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.6 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.57 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.58 percent at 1000 GMT.
Germany’s manufacturing sector shrank for the first time this year in March on the back of falling new orders, raising concern over its resilience to the euro zone crisis, and sending European share prices down more than 1 percent in morning trade.

The euro zone’s economy took an unexpected turn for the worse in March, hit by a sharp fall in French and German factory activity that even the most pessimistic economists failed to predict, business surveys showed on Thursday.

The purchasing managers indexes (PMIs), which capture how thousands of companies have fared over the month, effectively quashed any lingering hopes that the euro zone might avoid falling into a new recession.

China’s economic momentum also slowed in March as factory activity shrank for a fifth straight month, leaving investors fretting about the risks to global growth and anticipating fresh policy support from Beijing.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.57 points, or 0.35 percent, to 13,124.62 at the close. The S&P 500 Index dipped 2.63 points, or 0.19 percent, to 1,402.89. The Nasdaq Composite edged up 1.17 points, or 0.04 percent, to 3,075.32.

In the European markets, FTSE 100 England dropped to 5,845.65 by 0.79%, DAX Germany to 6,981.26 by 1.3%, France CAC to 3 473 by 1.6%.

NYMEX gold price boost 0.1% to $ 1 643.3

Exchange rate for euro vs US dollar was 1,3195 (-0.1%).