Stocks Mostly Lower as China, Greece Weigh

U.S. Market
Stocks were mostly lower today as disappointing Chinese data and Greek worries were in focus.

Greek markets were under pressure again today after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsiprasreiterated his commitment to renegotiate the terms of his country’s bailout instead of accepting an extension of current terms. Investors are worried that a confrontation between Greece and other European institutions could lead to the country defaulting or leaving the common currency.

China reported weaker-than-expected export (down 3.3%) and import data on Sunday, raising concerns that the growth is slowing further.

At midday the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down 0.3%, 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

Stocks on the Move
Shares of McDonald's (MCD) fell 1.3% after the firm reported another month of disappointing sales. Same-store sales were off 1.8% in January as the Asia-Pacific region 12.6% fall dragged down results.

Hasbro (HAS) reported upbeat results this morning. The firm said its sales rose to $1.3 billion from $1.28 billion in the year-ago-quarter on the back of sales of toys geared towards boys. The firm also boosted its dividend and increases its share buyback program by $500 million.

Foreign Markets
European markets were lower as Greece weighed. In late trading, the FTSE 100, Paris CAC and Germany’s DAX were down 0.2%, 0.9% and 1.7% respectively.

Asian shares were mixed. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.6%, the Nikkei 225 was up 0.4% while the Hang Seng dropped 0.6%.