After a collective move higher in the previous session, global markets moved collectively lower last night.

Once again however, the movements were muted due to the lack of fresh and market-moving trading cues.

European markets slipped, with the Stoxx Europe 600 slipping 0.5%, after the European Central Bank played down reports it was preparing to intervene in sovereign-debt markets.

A spokesman for the central bank said a weekend report about such plans in German news magazine Der Spiegel was “absolutely misleading.”

In London the UK's FTSE 100 gave up 28 points (-0.5%) to settle at 5824, whilst the French CAC (-0.2%) and German DAX (-0.1%) moved even less.

Stateside, the Dow Jones shed just four points to settle at 13272, whilst the S&P ended dead flat and the NASDAQ shaved off 0.01%.

After capping its sixth-straight weekly advance on Friday, putting it within striking distance of multiyear highs, the Dow ticked down for the first time in three sessions, as telecommunications and consumer-discretionary shares fell.

There were no major economic announcements in the US, part of the reason for the lack of significant movement in markets.

Crude-oil futures lost less than 0.1% to settle at $95.97 a barrel, while gold futures added 0.2% to finish at $1,620.10 an ounce.

The US dollar lost ground against the euro and the yen. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 2/32 in price to yield 1.812%.

Today's session will bring us the latest monetary policy meeting minutes, at 11:30am, AEST.

Click to Receive FREE Daily Trading Recommendations!

Morning Market Analysis: Morning SPI is a post from: Australian Stock Report Market Pulse Blog