OREANDA-NEWS. April 04, 2012. The US indices mostly fell on Tuesday. S&P 500 Index lost 0.4% while Russell was down by 0.69% with Basic Materials (-0.87%), Oil&Gas (-0.98%) as the laggards. Put/call ratio was at 1.54 and 90-110% skew was at 9.73. Advance/Decline ratio was at 345/149.

New York ISM Index rose to 67.4 vs consensus forecast of 63.1, indicating that economic activity remains strong in the US. Factory orders declined to 1.3% vs consensus forecast of a 1.5% rise.

Fed minutes scuttled QE3 hopes and commodities slumped during the session.

Asian indices were mostly down on Wednesday. Japanese Nikkei was down by 1.5%. S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.07%, Kospi declined by 1.5%. Chinese exchanges were closed for a holiday.

European markets fell  in the morning despite decent PMI data as Spain bond sales trailed estimates. Bloomberg Europe 500 Index was down by 1.02% as of 9:15 GMT.

ADP Payrolls, ISM non-manufacturing Index for US will be in focus today.