Cantor Fitzgerald

Uwe Parpart Comments: European, Asian Shares Decline: US Stock Index Futures Fall

August 5, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle

European and Asian stocks fell and U.S. index futures dropped on speculation reports today will add to indications that the U.S. economic recovery is slowing.

Allied Irish Banks Plc tumbled 8.9 percent after reporting a wider first-half loss. Next Plc slid 5.7 percent as Britain's second-largest clothing retailer said consumer spending will be "more restrained" in the second half. Petroplus Holdings AG, Europe's biggest independent refiner, retreated 1.6 percent after posting a loss.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.4 percent to 261.06 as of 8:17 a.m. in London. The gauge remains 4.1 percent below its high this year on April 15 amid speculation that the world economy may tip back into recession. Futures contracts on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index expiring in September retreated 0.2 percent and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.6 percent.

"The economy is pretty much dead in the water at this point," Uwe Parpart, chief strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald Hong Kong Capital Markets, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "Top line growth is very, very difficult to come by."

Service industries in the U.S. grew in July at the slowest pace in five months as a lack of jobs hemmed in U.S. consumers, economists said before reports today.