China jitters send world stocks and commodities tumbling

World stocks and commodity prices tumbled on Tuesday, as poor Chinese data saw fears about its economic health intensify.

After a relatively upbeat few days for world markets, concerns about China were reignited by surveys that showed its giant manufacturing sector shrinking at its fastest pace in three years and its services sector also cooling.

Asian stocks, particularly in Japan and Australia , had swooned overnight, and the gloomy mood remained in Europe as the pan-regional FTSEurofirst 300 opened down 2.5 per cent after its worst month in four years.

London, Frankfurt and Paris were down 2.3 to 2.5 per cent and oil was also back in the red as it cut almost $1.5 off the $10 it had leapt between Thursday and Monday, which had been its biggest three-day surge in 25 years.

"The problem is that we have these brief spells of optimism like we had last week when US GDP was revised up, but the overall theme is still the weakness in China and that is very hard to dispel from markets," said Philip Marey, a strategist at Rabobank in the Netherlands.

US stock futures were also down 1.5 per cent, while the mood was similarly wary in the currency and bond markets.

The safe-haven Japanese yen and the low-yielding euro , which has also been back in favour following its recent Greece-related falls, both rose against the dollar, to 120.16 yen per dollar and $1.1323 to the euro.

Gold another favourite of investors during periods of uncertainty, was up at $1,141 an ounce having risen 3.5 in August, its best month since January

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, summed up the situation saying in a speech in Indonesia that global economic growth was now likely to be weaker than had been expected just a few months ago.

She cited both a slower recovery in major advanced economies and a further slowdown in emerging nations and highlighted the need to “be vigilant for spillovers” from China’s stutters.

“The transition (in China) to a more market-based economy and the unwinding of risks built up in recent years is complex and could well be somewhat bumpy,” she added.

Reuters