Recovery continues in global markets

Global markets are continuing to recover from last week's panic selling. Asian stock markets rose today, led by Japan. European and US futures indexes are rising ahead of today's US inflation data. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1 percent, erasing last week's losses. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index recorded a limited increase, while the Topix index in Japan rose 2.6 percent. The Shanghai stock exchange in China fell 0.2 percent. Spot gold is also down. The barrel price of oil, which was $80 yesterday, is hovering above that level today amid concerns that Iran will retaliate. Fitch, the credit rating agency, downgraded Israel's credit rating by one notch on the grounds that the conflict is affecting its public finances. Producer inflation data in the US will be closely monitored today. The data could signal whether the Fed will cut interest rates in September. "We need to be careful about short-term movements in Asia given the low liquidity and foreign outflow," said Billy Leung, an investment strategist at Global X Management in Sydney. He used the expression.