U.S. retail sales slipped, European industrial output dived and the Bank of England said Britain needed a long period of healing, denting hopes on Wednesday of any global economic recovery.
Investors seeking any signs that the world might drag itself out of recession suffered a string of disappointments, and American shoppers delivered the biggest blow.
Sales at U.S. retailers fell for a second straight month in April, government data showed. This confounded analysts' forecasts of no change, and that they would even rise a little when disastrous motor vehicle sales were excluded.
Total sales, which had earlier shown signs of revival, dropped 0.4 percent. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, the fall was even bigger at 0.5 percent, the Commerce Department said.
"The back-to-back gains we had in January and February, which had helped inspired hopes that we were getting out of this recession, just got dealt a significant blow," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities in New York.
"These numbers are certainly discouraging, a bit disheartening. This is pretty uniformly weak."
Share markets, many of which had climbed as investors sensed the beginnings of a recovery, took the data badly.
"The financial market has been looking for positives in the economy. The market has gotten ahead of itself," said Guy Lebas at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.
Apart from the U.S. setback, reminders abounded that any recovery may not be as swift and strong as markets had hoped.
"NO GREEN SHOOTS"
Euro zone industrial output plummeted by more than 20 percent in March, official data showed, pointing to a sharp contraction in first-quarter economic output.
"There are no green shoots here; everything is either a quarter or a fifth down on the year," said Stuart Bennett, European economist at Calyon. "This sure is a horrible number," added Kenneth Broux, economist at Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.
The Bank of England offered little relief, predicting a slower British economic pickup than it had previously expected.
"Now the economy requires a period of healing. That will take time," Governor Mervyn King told a news conference to reveal the quarterly economic forecasts.
Any recovery was far from certain to last despite all the emergency treatment given to economic and financial systems.
"There are pretty solid reasons for supposing that there will be a recovery next year, but also pretty solid reasons for questioning if that will be sustained," he said. "It would be extremely unwise for anyone to claim that they know what the future is to hold."
Industrial production figures from China, supposedly a beacon of light during the world recession, also proved a disappointment but at least they showed growth.
However, Chinese shoppers seem to be pulling their weight. Retail sales grew 14.8 percent year-on-year in April, slightly up from 14.7 percent in March.
NO STRAIGHT LINE
"It is important not to attach too much importance to one particular data point and to recognise that any recovery in China is not going to proceed in a straight line," said Brian Jackson, an economist with Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong.
Intel Corp Chief Executive Paul Otellini was the latest company official to voice guarded optimism, saying the second quarter has been so far slightly better than expected for the technology bellwether.
However, there were still plenty of warning signs that the road to full recovery would be long and bumpy.
German car-parts group Schaeffler said it may have to cut about 4,500 jobs as the global slump eats into sales. Schaeffler showed how long some big companies may need to recover, forecasting that its markets would take up to five years just to return to 2008 levels.
Overall Europe produced mixed earnings reports, including a bigger then expected loss by Dutch financial group ING.
World stocks as measured by MSCI were down 3.5 percent after two consecutive days of moderate losses, hurt by the U.S. retail sales data. Leading Wall Street indices lost more than 1 percent at the opening.
Investors who had moved into more risky investments also retreated to the perceived safety of the dollar, which rallied against most major currencies.
