By James Langton

(September 15 – 09:00 ET) – Consumer prices in the U.S. fell 0.1% in August. The drop was caused by a slide in energy prices, earlier in the month. The jump in recent weeks is expected to show up in next month’s index.

The core rate which excludes food and rising energy costs was up 0.2% in line with expectations, so the market probably won’t move much on the news.

The other economic number out of the U.S., today, was the July data on business inventories. It came in up 0.9%, ahead of an expectation of 0.6%.

There are no reports from Statistics Canada due out today.

European equity markets have been mixed this morning with software, techs and chemicals leading the way down. Oil prices are up. The FTSE in London is off 46 points to 6509. The Paris CAC 40 is down just 14 points to 6624. The German DAX is up 29 points to 7077.

Ford Motor Co. says it has dropped its US$7 billion bid to buy Daewoo Motor Co. The Scottish Life Assurance Co. is reportedly planning to reject a takeover bid from General Electric Capital Corp. The bid is worth more than US$1.4 billion. The assurance company is hoping for a higher bid from elsewhere.

In Asia, the Japanese markets were on holiday, but the Chinese were selling. The Hang Seng closed down 146 points to 16249.