20120515 Global Market & Commodities Related News.

Commodities Drop 10th Day; Europe Stock Futures Rise on Germany
2012-05-15 06:19:58.954 GMT By Glenys Sim

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Commodities headed for their longest slump in 14 years, Asian stocks fell, and bond risk in the region climbed to a four-month high on evidence of slowing growth in China before a report that may show Europe’s economy shrank. European equity futures rose as Germany’s economy expanded five times faster than economists forecast.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 0.6 percent by 7:15 a.m. in London as the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index earlier erased the year’s gains. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of commodities dropped for a 10th day, the longest period of decline since 1998. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.5 percent and the Euro Stoxx 50 Index futures advanced 0.4 percent.

Foreign direct investment in China fell for a sixth month in April, underscoring risks of a deeper slowdown in Asia’s biggest economy. Greece, without a government for more than a week, must decide today whether to pay 436 million euros ($562 million) to bondholders who shunned last month’s debt swap. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded 26 Italian banks yesterday.

“Nobody quite knows what would happen in the event of a Greek departure from the eurozone,” Russell Jones, global head of fixed-income strategy at Westpac Banking Corp., said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “ All we know is it would be damaging, it’s just a question of how damaging.”

German gross domestic product in Europe’s largest economy rose 0.5 percent from the fourth quarter, when it fell 0.2 percent, the Federal Statistics Office said in Wiesbaden today. Economists predicted a 0.1 percent gain, according to the median of 40 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. French GDP stagnated.

The 17-nation European economy probably shrank 0.2 percent in the three months to the end of March, putting it into recession after a 0.3 percent contraction at the end of last year, the median of 38 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey shows.