Overnight roundup courtesy of Spreadex – 24/07/13

An unexpected decline in Chinese preliminary manufacturing index weighed on Asian stocks overnight with investors threating the economic slowdown is deepening. The negative data erases yesterday’s positivity after China’s premier Li Kaqiang said the economy will grow by at least 7 percent. 

European stocks are seen opening unchanged to slightly higher boosted by strong results from US tech giant Apple and before a bulk of European data which could show the EU manufacturing industry grew in the first three weeks of July. 

Shares in Apple Inc rallied nearly 5 percent in after-hours trading when the tech giant reported better than expected EPS and sales, helped by healthier iPhone sales. Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones in the first quarter compared to 26 million last year.