Chinese Shares Tumble On Economic Worries, European Stocks Surge

Chinese stocks were hard hit on Monday after the government's mouthpiece People's Daily published an article titled "Authoritative Person Talking About China's Economy." According to

the article said that a person of high authority in China is expecting the country's economic growth to look like an "L-shape" for "more than one or two years." Meanwhile, China's government said that the country's total exports fell by 1.8 percent in April while imports also fell 10.9 percent. China's Shanghai index lost 2.79 percent. "Markets remain very cautious," Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, told

"There's a lot of focus on potential negatives. There are significant risks in normalizing global monetary systems. The Chinese numbers were a bit disappointing with both export and import volumes showing a decline."

Most other Asian equity indices ended the day positive. India's Mumbai Sensesx index gained 1.82 percent, Japan's Nikkei index gained 0.68 percent Australia's ASX index gained 0.54 percent and Taiwan's TSEC index lost 0.18 percent. European stocks were mostly higher with the broad Euro Stoxx 50 index trading higher by around 1.40 percent with more than 4 hours of trading remaining. Germany's DAX index was an out-performer, having gained 1.76 percent, following by France's CAC index that was higher by 1.44 percent and the UK's FTSE index which was higher by 0.46 percent. Oil prices were higher as well Monday morning as an ongoing wildfire in Canada temporarily knocked out over 1 million barrels in daily production capacity. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia appointed Khalid al-Falih as head of the government's newly created Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources. Crude futures rose nearly $1 per barrel to $45.57 while Brent crude futures rose $0.72 per barrel to trade at $46.02.