LONDON - World stocks fell on Friday with European shares on track to mark their biggest quarterly loss since the collapse of Lehman Bros three years ago as European economic readings compounded pessimism over global growth. US stock index futures pointed to a weaker open forWall Street on Friday, with futures down over 1 per cent. The euro slipped, on course for its biggest monthly drop in nearly a year, weighed down by the lack of visible solution to the euro zone's deepening debt woes. The boost to the euro generated by Germany's parliamentary approval for new powers to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) proved fleeting after data showing German retail sales slumping at their fastest pace in more than four years in August. "German retail sales were disappointing, so things are pointing to a further economic slowdown ahead. On top of that, the sovereign debt issue is ongoing," said Valentin Marinov, currency strategist at Citi. "To see the euro rebound we have to see more steps taken towards extending the lending ability of the EFSF and more efforts to prop up growth." Comments from German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler that the Bundestag had little appetite to allow the euro zone's bailout fund to be leveraged to help the bloc's stricken economies did little to lift the single currency, which fell 0.7 per cent against the dollar at $1.3495 having fallen to a day's low of $1.3486 earlier. "Short-term, we still have the same prospects: the timing of a (likely) Greek default, the nature of it, how shared orotherwise; the uncertainty of whether the (second Greek bailout) package needs to be revisited," said Philip Isherwood, head of equity strategy, Europe and UK, at Evolution Securities. An unexpected rise in euro zone inflation for September is also moderating hopes that the European Central Bank would easemonetary policy to support weakening European demand. The deepening economic gloom has prompted investors to slash bets on risky assets in the quarter to ending September. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 1.7 per cent on Friday, on course for its worst quarterly loss since the months following the collapse of Lehman Brothers three years ago. The MSCI world equity index fell nearly 1 per cent, having dropped more than 16 per cent over the quarter, the biggest drop since the last three months of 2008. Emerging equities have also had their worst quarter since 2008, down 23 per cent between July-September. Asian equities extended their worst monthly performance since the most volatile days of the global financial crisis in October 2008. The third consecutive monthly contraction in Chinese manufacturing sector added to fears of a sharp property market correction in China, sending the key Shanghai index to its lowest levels in 2-1/2 years while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 2.3 per cent. The retreat in riskier assets pushed safe-haven German government bonds higher after five consecutive sessions of losses as investors rebalanced their portfolios on the last day of the month and quarter. German 10-year government bond yields were down 10 basis points at 1.91 per cent, tracking benchmark US Treasury yields which were 6 bps lower at 1.94 per cent.
