US markets in red on poor data, USD rockets

US equities are trading in the back foot on Thursday following their European peers, after a marginal improvement from the weekly report on the US labour market and a decline of the productivity during the last quarter of 2012. The greenback, measured by the US Dollar Index, has rapidly left behind the psychological mark at 80.00, after ECB’s Draghi’s talked down the euro, igniting a rally in the safe havens.
At the moment, the DowJones is losing 0.67%, followed by the S&P500 and the Nasdaq, down 0.60% and 0.64%, respectively.

Markets in Euroland closed well into the defensive side, with the exception of the German benchmark, advancing 0.13%. Bearishness has prevailed among investors on Thursday, after the Boe and the ECB left their monetary policies unchanged, in line with expectations.
The CAC40 led the losses with 1.15%, seconded by the FTSE100, 1.06% and the IBEX35, 0.52%. The single currency is still suffering Draghi’s dovish comments, breaching two big figures in its way to session lows around 1.3370, albeit recovering some pips at the moment.

Commodities are echoing the USD strength, with the WTI down 1.00% at $95.66 and the ounce of gold giving away 0.41% at $1671