In Europe, data indicated that manufacturing and services in the euro zone contracted more than expected. The composite Purchasing Managers' Index for the euro zone dropped to 49.3 from 50.4 in January, London-based Markit Economics said today. That was below an initial figure of 49.7 published on February 22.
Europe's Stoxx 600 Index ended the session with a 0.6 per cent decline for the day.
Also weighing on markets was a report showing that orders to US factories in January fell for the first time in three months. The Commerce Department in Washington said orders for manufactured goods fell 1.0 per cent. While that was better than the 1.5 per cent drop economists had forecast, it was the largest decline since October 2010.
A brighter note came from the Institute for Supply Management which said its services index rose to 57.3 in February from 56.8 in January. That bettered economists' expectations for a decline to 56.1, according to Reuters.
The gauge of new orders rose to 61.2 from 59.4, while the employment index slipped to 55.7 from 57.4.
"It was overall a solid report," Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York told Reuters, pointing specifically to the gain in the forward-looking new orders component. "At this level of ISM, this is not really changing our view that you're still looking at around a 2.0 per cent year in terms of GDP, but it is holding up and this is certainly what you want to see."
Another positive note is that China tends to exceed its growth estimate. The 8-per cent target set in the previous eight years was comfortably surpassed each year.
"In recent years, the GDP target has obviously always been a minimum acceptable floor rather than a ceiling, so I think it is more likely that in the government's heart of hearts, it is leaning on growth of a bit above 8 per cent," Paul Cavey, an economist with Macquarie Bank in Hong Kong, told Reuters.