Market Buzz: China and Fed weigh down indices

Russian stocks are likely to open lower on Thursday amid disappointing data on China’s manufacturing and the lack of new announcements from the US Federal Reserve.

Russian markets closed in the red after flat trade on Wednesday. The MICEX lost 1.13%, while the RTS declined 1.3%. US markets closed mostly lower Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut its growth forecasts and disclosed disappointing data on the labor market. Investors were also downbeat after the Fed failed to announce a much-anticipated third round of quantitative easing.  The Dow Jones shed 0.1%, the S&P 500 lost 0.17%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded flat.European stocks ended in the black on Wednesday, supported by good banking performance, while investors also looked forward to the Fed’s announcements. Meanwhile pressure on Spanish yields also eased as yields fell to a 6.7% low.  The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed 0.6% up, while Spain’s IBEX 35 rose 1.5% and the German DAX 30 added 0.5%. Most Asian markets fell Thursday as HSBC data showed manufacturing activity in China slowed down to a seven-month low of 48.1 in June, compared to 48.4 in May. China’s Shanghai Composite lost 1.55% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shed 0.9%, while South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.8% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.86%. Meanwhile Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average bucked the trend and grew 1.15%.