Disappointing economic data drags down world markets, China ADRs regain lost ground

Disappointing manufacturing data from the United States and worsening sentiment in Germany contributed to falls on key world markets on Thursday amid comments from a Bank of England official about interest rates and labour costs and their effect on Britain's economy. 

In the US, markets traded down from the opening, staging a minor recovery in the second half of the morning session.

At 1pm the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1.17 per cent at 16,088.96 points while the Nasdaq was off 1.02 per cent at 4,704.2 points. The S&P 500 was 0.86 lower at 1,922 points.

The Volkswagen emissions testing scandal has cast a shadow over manufacturing stocks in Europe. 

At the close, Germany’s DAX was down 1.92 per cent to 9,427.64 points; France’s CAC closed down 1.93 per cent to 4,347.24 points and Britain’s FTSE 100 was off 1.17 per cent at 5,691.49 points.

Some Chinese ADRs that have traded down over the past five days clawed back some of those losses in New York on Thursday. Leading the pack were JD.com, up 2.09 per cent; Vipshop, at 1.77 per cent; SouFun Holdings, up 1.39 per cent; and Youku Tudou, up 1.24 per cent.