Chinese premier Wen Jiabao�s 2012 growth target of 7.5% is the country�s lowest in eight years. That�s weighing on Asian markets, where the Shanghai Composite is down 0.6% and the Hang Seng is off by 1.4%.
Meanwhile, Europe is also facing fresh doubts ahead of Thursday�s deadline for private-sector creditor participation in the Greek debt swap. Euro-zone business-activity data that showed a bigger-than-expected contraction is also� helping drive Germany�s DAX index to a 1% loss.
All this is having a knock-on effect on U.S. markets, where futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down by 34 points to 12934 and the S&P 500 is off by 4 to 1364. Those indexes were essentially flat last week.
But in a sign of this year�s calmer markets, the blue-chip Dow also matched the longest streak without a 100-point loss since January 2011 on Friday, at 44 straight sessions.
Gold is continuing to slip, down 0.3% to 1703.70 after its worst week since mid-December, and crude oil is essentially flat at $106.74 a barrel after briefly topping $110 last week.
BioLineRx (BLRX) is ahead by 8.8% in premarket action after saying it received approval to start a Phase II trial of its inflammatory bowel disease treatment.
Financials could trail the rest of the market today. The Wall Street Journal reported clashes with the Federal Reserve over details that could be released in the next round of stress tests, with worries of “unanticipated and potentially unwarranted negative consequences to the covered companies and the U.S. financial markets.” Bank of America (BAC) is down 0.5% in premarket action and J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) is down 0.4%.
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