Before the Bell: Greek debt fears leave global markets flat

Global markets are mostly flat Wednesday as concerns of sluggish growth return to the fore and as investors nervously await the outcome of a Greek debt-swap.

Thursday is the deadline for Greece's private bondholders to agree to swap Greek government bonds for debt issues worth about 70 per cent less. Without an agreement in place, Greece won't get the full €130 billion (US$172 billion) in bailout funds it needs to avoid bankruptcy on Mar. 20^th. Meanwhile, concerns that China's slowdown would impact global growth pushed commodity prices lower stateside on Tuesday and weighed on resource stocks across Asia.

The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index was down 0.1 per cent at 258.10. London's FTSE 100 Index was down 0.1 per cent at 5760.21, Paris's CAC-40 Index was flat at 3363.28 and Frankfurt's DAX was 0.2 per cent lower at 6618.62. The euro currency is presently fetching US$1.3122.

In Asia, similar anxieties hurt market sentiment. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 1.5 per cent to 4143.7, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.9 per cent to 20627.78 and Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.6 per cent to 9576.06. South Korea's Kospi gave up 0.9 per cent to 1982.15, while China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.7 per cent to 2394.79.

On Wall Street, U.S. futures are pointing to a higher open, buoyed by the promise of good news from ADP's private-sector payroll data for February due later today. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 51 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 12795. Futures for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 6 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 1348. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 11.5 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 2601.

Closer to home, the spectre of a global economic slowdown nailed the S&P/TSX Composite Index as it dropped 225.31 points to close at 12,298.63 on Tuesday, representing nearly a seven-week low. The TSX Venture Exchange fell 50.93 points to 1,604.87. The commodity-sensitive Canadian dollar also fell and is presently trading at 99.94¢ US.