Key Asian stocks ended lower today except South Korea’s Kospi, which gained 2.11 percent.  Japan’s Nikkei-225 declined 1.66 percent, Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 1.09 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.90 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite cracked by 0.62 percent.

 Major European markets were trading higher today. France’s CAC was trading 0.89 percent up,

London’s FTSE was 0.56 percent higher and Germany’s DAX was 0.54 percent up when the reports last came in.