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Johannesburg - Worse than expected nonfarm payrolls data out of the US on Friday continued to weigh on markets on Monday, with the JSE down 96 points at midday.
By 12:05 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index had fallen 0.31%, with banks easing 0.72%, gold miners shedding 0.51% and financials slipping 0.45%. Platinum miners were off 0.44%, while industrials fell 0.41% and resources dropped 0.10%.
The rand was last bid at 6.72 to the dollar, unchanged from the JSE's close on Friday. Gold was quoted at US$1 544.72 a troy ounce from US$1 537.66/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 813/oz, from $1 813.50/oz previously.
"The Dow did finish lower on Friday and Asian markets were mainly lower this morning. We are waiting for the European Central Bank's decision on interest rates later this week, but the economic data out of the US does confirm that some risk aversion is warranted," a local trader said.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that European stocks opened lower on Monday, with a dearth of fresh economic data leaving investors to mull over the recent slew of weak numbers, which suggest the global economic recovery is slowing down.
"The economic growth we are seeing is fairly anaemic, considering we've had two bouts of quantitative easing and two years of pretty much 10% deficits," said Deutsche Bank. "Friday's employment report confirmed the problems in this recovery.
"This really isn't a typical recovery and therefore the level of certainty over its future path must be lower than what all us market followers have been used to in our lifetimes," the bank added.
At 08:10 GMT, the Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.4% at 272.52. In the main European bourses, London's FTSE 100 index was down 0.3% at 5 837.91, Frankfurt's DAX dropped 0.3% to 7 087.46, and Paris's CAC-40 was 0.7% lower at 3 865.20.
Concerns about the European debt crisis were somewhat alleviated by news on Friday that Greece's talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund concluded positively, but political developments in the region continued to grab investors' attention.
On the economic calendar, euro-zone producer price index numbers are due at 09:00 GMT.
Asian stock markets were down on Monday, with the Japanese market hurt by a slump in Tokyo Electric Power's shares amid concerns over the utility's ability to remain a going concern.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average closed down 1.2% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was off 0.4%.
Trading activity in the region was subdued as markets in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and New Zealand were closed for public holidays.
In the US on Friday, stocks fell to cap their first five-week losing streak since July 2004 as a dismal nonfarm payrolls report added to the drum beat of investor concerns about a slowing economy.
By 12:05 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index had fallen 0.31%, with banks easing 0.72%, gold miners shedding 0.51% and financials slipping 0.45%. Platinum miners were off 0.44%, while industrials fell 0.41% and resources dropped 0.10%.
The rand was last bid at 6.72 to the dollar, unchanged from the JSE's close on Friday. Gold was quoted at US$1 544.72 a troy ounce from US$1 537.66/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 813/oz, from $1 813.50/oz previously.
"The Dow did finish lower on Friday and Asian markets were mainly lower this morning. We are waiting for the European Central Bank's decision on interest rates later this week, but the economic data out of the US does confirm that some risk aversion is warranted," a local trader said.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that European stocks opened lower on Monday, with a dearth of fresh economic data leaving investors to mull over the recent slew of weak numbers, which suggest the global economic recovery is slowing down.
"The economic growth we are seeing is fairly anaemic, considering we've had two bouts of quantitative easing and two years of pretty much 10% deficits," said Deutsche Bank. "Friday's employment report confirmed the problems in this recovery.
"This really isn't a typical recovery and therefore the level of certainty over its future path must be lower than what all us market followers have been used to in our lifetimes," the bank added.
At 08:10 GMT, the Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.4% at 272.52. In the main European bourses, London's FTSE 100 index was down 0.3% at 5 837.91, Frankfurt's DAX dropped 0.3% to 7 087.46, and Paris's CAC-40 was 0.7% lower at 3 865.20.
Concerns about the European debt crisis were somewhat alleviated by news on Friday that Greece's talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund concluded positively, but political developments in the region continued to grab investors' attention.
On the economic calendar, euro-zone producer price index numbers are due at 09:00 GMT.
Asian stock markets were down on Monday, with the Japanese market hurt by a slump in Tokyo Electric Power's shares amid concerns over the utility's ability to remain a going concern.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average closed down 1.2% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was off 0.4%.
Trading activity in the region was subdued as markets in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and New Zealand were closed for public holidays.
In the US on Friday, stocks fell to cap their first five-week losing streak since July 2004 as a dismal nonfarm payrolls report added to the drum beat of investor concerns about a slowing economy.
