OREANDA-NEWS. December 14, 2011. The US indices fell on Tuesday as Merkel showed tough stance towards possible ESM expansion and Fed made no changes in the final statement after the regular meeting. S&P 500 Index lost 0.87% while Russell was down by 2.06% with Basic Materials (-1.88%) and Consumer Services as the laggards.

Retail sales rose 0.2% vs consensus forecast of 0.6% - consumer activity was low before the “Black Friday”.

Asian indices were mostly down on Wednesday. Hang Seng lost 0.03%. Japanese Nikkei was down by 0.39%, Korean Kospi - by 0.34%. S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.07%. Shanghai stock indices were down on average by 0.9%.

Industrial Production in Europe, US import Prices will be in focus today.

Merkel is to address German Parliament on emergency mechanism and APEC members are to start regular meeting.