Markets | 05/08/2014 | DowJones

It has been a broadly negative session for markets right across Asia with only Singapore and Hong Kong managing to grind out the most modest of gains by the close, despite a reasonably strong lead having being served up by Wall Street on Monday. There was some slightly troubling Chinese PMI estimates released by HSBC that appear to have capped sentiment – most critically the services reading is back at the breakeven point of 50.0 and arguably this is just cause for traders to be left feeling somewhat uneasy. 

Futures are suggesting that Wall Street will give back a little of yesterday’s gains at the open, although with a couple of high profile economic readings to look forward to shortly after the bell, we could easily see some big moves in the early trade. The latest ISM Non-manufacturing composite reading and factor order data are both scheduled for release, each offering some further insight as to the health of the US economy. We’ve seen the market increasingly confident that a rate hike is on the cards, so anything that adds weight here could easily result in further downside for stocks. Ahead of the open we’re calling the DOW down 14 at 16555 and the S&P down 3 at 1936. 

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