The UK market is in the red on Tuesday, as data on German economic sentiment remained below expectations in May. The Asian markets were mostly down and the U.S. futures are poised for a weak open.
An indicator of German investor confidence remained below expectations in May, despite a modest gain from April, a survey by the Centre For European Economic Research (ZEW) showed Tuesday.
The ZEW indicator of economic sentiment gained 0.1 points compared to the previous month and is now hovering at the 36.4 points-mark. This was below forecast for a reading of 40.
Eurozone industrial production growth accelerated more than expected in March, largely due to an increase in energy output. Industrial output advanced 1 percent month-on-month in March, Eurostat reported Tuesday. The rate of growth was bigger than the 0.3 percent rise seen in February and the 0.5 percent growth forecast by economists.
A gathering of Eurozone finance ministers on Monday gave green light to disbursement of bailout tranches to Cyprus and Greece. However, the ministers continued to squabble over the establishment of a proposed banking union.
The European Stability Mechanism, the euro area's permanent bailout fund, will provide a total of 3 billion euros in its first-ever bailout payment to Cyprus. Of this, 2 billion euros was disbursed on Monday.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is falling 0.53 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is losing 0.41 percent.
The FTSE 100 is currently losing 0.2 percent.
Miners are broadly lower. Vedanta, Glencore Xstrata, Rio Tinto and Anglo American are losing between 1.9 percent and 2.7 percent.
Fresnillo is falling 3.3 percent and Evraz is losing 3.8 percent.
British Land Co reported a marginal rise in underlying pre-tax profit for the year. The company plans to exit Europe over time amid the tough economy. The stock is falling around 1 percent.
ICAP, which reported financial results, is adding 9.2 percent.
Severn Trent is gaining more than 14 percent after the water utility confirmed a possible offer from a consortium. Peer United Utilities is advancing 4 percent.
Engineering firm Babcock International, which reported higher annual profit, is gaining 5 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX, the French CAC 40 and Switzerland's SMI are in negative territory.
Across Asia/Pacific, markets had a mixed outing. Among major markets, Australia's All Ordinaries advanced around 0.2 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. Trading could be impacted by the release of a report on import and export prices, although activity may be somewhat subdued ahead of the release of a slew of key economic reports later in the week, including industrial production data on Wednesday and housing starts on Thursday.
In the previous session, U.S. stocks paused for breath after recent record gains, with a report from the Commerce Department showing an unexpected increase in retail sales in April helping to limit the downside. The Dow slid 0.2 percent, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 edged up marginally.
In the commodity space, crude for June delivery is adding $0.06 to $95.23 per barrel and June gold is rising $1.2 to $1435.5 a troy ounce.
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