3039BO-ASIA-BUSINESSASIA_O_ NONENo-Data-Available, MAY 16
Greek president Karolos Papoulias has announced the country will hold new elections after politicians failed to reach agreement on a coalition government to run the country. The vote is already being considered a referendum on whether the country should remain in the euro zone and investors are concerned that political gridlock will put international aide at risk.
The risk of economic turmoil in Europe weighed on Asian stocks. In North America, investors are looking ahead to the latest industrial output data. Stock market futures in New York were up almost 0.2 per cent 90 minutes before the opening bell, but in Toronto they were down a small fraction.
Markets:
China's Hang Seng index down 3.2 per cent
Japan's Nikkei 225 index down 1.1 per cent
London's FTSE 100 index down 0.65 per cent
France's CAC 40 index up 0.52 per cent
Germany's DAX index down 0.52 per cent
Spain's IBEX 35 index down 0.2 per cent
Commodities:
Oil down $1.59 (U.S.) to $92.39 a barrel
Gold down 0.5 per cent to $1,536.57 an ounce
Copper down 1.5 per cent to $3.465 a pound
Canadian dollar down 0.1 per cent to 99.19 cents (U.S.).
Economic data:
(Eastern times)
8:30 a.m. U.S. housing starts for April expected to rise 4.7 per cent from March
Update: The Commerce Department reported a 2.6 percent increase from March's upwardly revised annual rate of 699,000 housing starts, to 717,000 starts. The figure beat economists' consensus estimate for April of 685,000 starts.
9:15 a.m. Industrial production for April expected to increase by 0.6 per cent
10:30 a.m. EIA petroleum inventories
2:00 a.m. Minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee
Stocks to watch:
J.C. Penney & Co. late Tuesday posted a first-quarter loss and said sales fell more than expected.
BHP Billiton Ltd. will scale back its plan to spend $80-billion over five years in light of global economic volatility.
Deere & Co. and Target Corp. reporting quarterly results.