International Report

The FTSEurofirst 300 closed 0.3% lower at 1,023.15 points. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.18%, to end at 10,383.38. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 0.10%, to 1,108.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.08%, to close at 2,242.03. The benchmark Nikkei dropped 48.37 points to 10,352.10. The Topix lost 0.3% to 907.37.

Analysts have stated their concern that a disagreement between the central bank Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan over how to reduce the risk of  deflation may disrupt the  nation’s economic recovery. The global economic recovery and a falling euro could improve the outlook for exports, this may cause the German business confidence in February to rise to a 19-month high. According to a Bloomberg News survey, the Ifo institute will say that in January its business climate index, rose from 95.8 to 96.1.

Due for release today is the NZD Inflation Expectations q/q, EUR German Ifo Business Climate, GBP Inflation Report Hearings and USD CB Consumer Confidence.

By Greg Secker

This entry was posted on February 23, 2010 at 11:56 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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