 us retail sales and jobs data due updates prices throughout adds us markets open new commentary changes bylinedateline previously london new york sept 16 reuters  global markets dipped on thursday and us stocks were lower as oil prices retreated and concerns about a possible slowdown in the economic recovery from covid19 weighed wall street indexes fell as losses in heavyweight technology and oil stocks offset strong retail sales data a report from the us commerce department showed retail sales unexpectedly rose in august indicating positive trends in consumer spending a key factor in america’s economic recovery however the us labor market remains under pressure with data showing initial jobless claims were slightly more than expected last week oil slipped below 75 a barrel on thursday falling from a multiweek high a day earlier as the threat to us gulf production from hurricane nicholas receded european equities gained bucking the trend from a weak asian session hong kong’s hang seng index dropped to its lowest level so far this year and chinese shares sank as investors dumped property and consumer stocks over fears that the liquidity crisis at china’s evergrande group could affect the broader economy at 1448 gmt the msci world equity index was down by around 049 down from its an alltime high on sept 7 unexpectedly weak data from china on wednesday reinforced investor bets that global growth is slowing due to covid19 and supply chain constraints but europe’s stoxx 600 was up 05 on the day the dow jones industrial average fell 16036 points or 046 to 3465403 the sp 500 lost 2634 points or 059 to 445436 and the nasdaq composite dropped 9252 points or 061 to 1506901 “retail spending categories that were strongest in august were in covidbeneficiary categories” wrote ellen zentner chief us economist at morgan stanley “now incorporating today’s retail sales release we lift our real personal consumer expenditures tracking to 19 and gdp to 50” markets remain focused next week’s federal reserve meeting for clues as to when the us central bank will start to taper stimulus especially after the flurry of us economic data out this week on tuesday data from the us commerce department showed inflation cooling and having possibly peaked but inflation in britain was the highest in years according to data on wednesday “we have an unusual situation where the overall market is sideways to lower but with a riskon trend underneath and that’s down to signs the delta variant may be peaking in the us which is driving people into reflation and recovery plays” said kiran ganesh head of cross asset at ubs global wealth management “at the same time there are concerns about fiscal consolidation and worries about china moving to lockdowns” major banks have told clients to reduce their exposure to stocks with many market participants expecting the equity bull run to end us crude recently fell 12 to 7174 per barrel and brent was at 7469 down 102 on the day the dollar index rose 0523 with the euro down 052 to 11753 the australian dollar  which is seen as a liquid proxy for risk appetite  was 02 weaker at 07318 jobs data showed that australian employment dived in august as coronavirus lockdowns in sydney and melbourne forced businesses to lay off workers and slash hours the us 10year treasury yield was 13344 while core euro zone government bond yields were little changed