By Chris Becker
A relatively quiet night on the markets where a series of dour economic data from Europe, including the closely watched German ZEW sentiment survey came in sharply negative, and Euro-wide industrial production confirming a slowdown with drop of nearly 2% over the year.
Stocks were flat first in Europe, where the FTSE and DAX where up 0.4% and 0.1% respectively, but both retraced gains in futures trading as US energy stocks were sold off on the oil price smash.
The US S&P500 tried to breakout at the end of its session but came back to its opening value by the end of futures trading although the NASDAQ is showing more bullish signs. Overall however, this activity is showing a lack of confidence by bulls and indeed, volumes were mainly algo based and very light.