10 things you need to know in markets today
Chinese manufacturing activity fell into contraction in August. PMI slumped to a three-year low of 49.7 last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. It's the latest sign of slowing economic activity in China.
European manufacturing data is coming. Spain, Italy, Greece, and the UK are all due to released manufacturing PMI data for August this morning, and a European figure as a whole is due at 9 a.m BST (4 a.m ET).
Unemployment figures for the Eurozone are also due at 9 a.m BST (4 a.m ET). Economists are forecasting the rate will be unchanged at 11.1%.
Chinese stocks are falling again, and dragging the rest of Asia down with them. China's benchmark Shanghai Composite is down 1.7% at time of writing, while Japan's Nikkei is off 3.8%, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng is down 0.5%.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate jumped $3.98 (£2.58), or 8.8%, to $49.20 (£31.95) a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday, its third straight winning session.
Each of the major US stock indexes finished August down more than 6%, their biggest monthly loss since May 2012. The Dow closed yesterday down 0.7%, the S&P 500 was 0.8% lower, and the Nasdaq was down 1.1%.
Chinese fund managers have cut the proportion they will invest in stocks over the next three months to an eight-year low, according to a poll conducted by Reuters. The Shanghai Composite collapsed 7.85% last week.
The Bank of England will release UK mortgage approval data for July at 9.30 a.m BST (4.30 ET). Economists are forecasting the figure will have risen slightly to 68,000, up from 66,580 in the prior month.
Siemens, Daimler, Rheinmetall - the cream of German industry - have been mired in cases of alleged corruption in Greece. No date has been set yet for 19 former executives of German engineering group Siemens to appear in Greek court, but it is expected to be one of the biggest financial trials of the decade in Greece.
Britain's Rolls-Royce is cooperating with investigators in a massive corruption scandal at Brazilian state oil giant Petrobras.The engineering company confirmed it had been contacted by investigators involved in the probe, which has engulfed Brazil's political and business establishment amid allegations of a massive kickbacks scheme.