European Factors to Watch-Shares to fall on unease over Syria

Tue Aug 27, 2013 6:23am BST
LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - European shares were expected to fall on Tuesday
on concerns that the United States was inching towards a possible military
action against Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack.

"The apparent certainty that military action against Syria is on its way has
traders highly uncertain about what the repercussions will be for igniting a
powder keg in such an already volatile region," Capital Spreads dealer Jonathan
Sudaria wrote in a note.

"Traders will be shying away from risky assets until there is some clarity
about the future path of military intervention from the West."

A day after a public holiday in the United Kingdom, financial spreadbetters
predicted Britain's FTSE 100 to open 18 to 24 points lower, or as much
as 0.4 percent. Germany's DAX was likely to fall 32 to 36 points, or as
much as 0.4 percent, while France's CAC 40 was seen dropping 20 to 21
points, or as much as 0.5 percent.

US Treasury to reach debt ceiling in mid-October

The US government will reach its debt limit by mid-October unless Congress acts quickly, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned.

The debt ceiling was last raised in January. The government can no longer borrow if it is reached.

Mr Lew said that in such a case it will be unable to meet obligations such as pensions, military salaries and Medicare payments.

The country's borrowing limit is currently capped at $16.7tn (£10.7tn).

Nikkei slips for 2nd day as Asian stocks decline; Tepco jumps

Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:38am BST
TOKYO, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average fell
for a second straight day on Tuesday, taking its cues from weak
Asian stock markets, with investors generally reluctant to trade
actively ahead of potentially market-moving events in the coming
weeks.

Investors are keeping their eyes on developments over Syria
and waiting to get clarity on when the U.S. Federal Reserve will
scale back its stimulus measures.

The benchmark Nikkei shed 0.7 percent to 13,542.37
and the broader Topix dropped 0.5 percent to 1,134.02,
with 1.71 billion shares changing hands, the third-lowest this
year.

Bucking the overall weakness, Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc
surged 12.3 percent on expectations that the utility
would receive further government funding to deal with
radioactive water at its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
It also was the most traded stock by turnover on the main board.

German Ifo Business Climate 107.5 107.1 106.2

Headline FTSE indices entrench early softness

USD S&P/CS Composite-20 HPI y/y 12.1% 11.9% 12.2%

USD CB Consumer Confidence 81.5 79.6 80.3

USD Richmond Manufacturing Index 14 -7 -11