Wall Street follows global equities lower

Equities markets were lower globally on Tuesday. In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries dropped 0.45 percent to 6301. The Sensex fell 0.82 percent to 13,765.46 in India, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng index was 0.91 percent lower to 10,706.35. Meanwhile, the Straits Times index in Singapore was down 1.43 percent to 3,439.21. The Tokyo markets fell as well, but not nearly as drastically, with the Nikkei 225 falling 0.07 percent to 17,656 and the Topix index 0.02 percent lower to 1,732.63.

The European markets were lower as well. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0.83 percent to 1,581.38, while the CAC-40 in Paris dropped 0.66 percent to 6,031.15 and Xetra Dax was 1.15 percent lower to 7,439.15 in Frankfurt. In London, meanwhile, the FTSE 100 was 0.8 percent lower to 6,550.6, while the FTSE 250 fell 0.86 percent to 12,105.5

The New York equities markets were lower at midday ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 0.4 percent to 13,257.06, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.4 percent lower to 2,559.85 and the S&P 500 had fallen 0.45 percent to 1,502.74.

Crude oil prices rose after another attack on an oil facility in Nigeria, while most base metals prices eased slightly.

Among currencies, the US dollar and the euro both weakened on the session, while the Australian dollar made gains on news that retail sales there were up twice as much as expected in March.

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