Global stocks, oil fall as G20 yields no specifics

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks kicked off the week on a softer note on Monday while oil fell below $56 a barrel after a weekend summit of G20 world leaders in Washington failed to produce concrete measures to avert a global recession.

Data confirming Japan has joined the euro zone and others in recession followed a report on Friday that U.S. retail sales suffered a record decline in October, fanning worries over the impact on corporate profits and consumer consumption.

World leaders pledged rapid action to try to restore global growth over the weekend, but they left it to national governments to tailor their own initiatives and appeared to fall short of a globally coordinated commitment to spur growth.

"There were lots of nice words (from the G20), but there was not significant concrete action, that the markets could look to," said Keith Bowman, equity strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown.

MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS fell 0.8 percent while emerging stocks .MSCIEF lost 1.3 percent. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of European stocks .FTEU3 dropped 2 percent.

"We're still finding a floor here. We're bumping along the bottom," said Darren Winder, strategist at Cazanove.

"(Investors) are trying to see encouragement from lower interest rates, but they are continuing to be fearful of how much profits are going to fall in a recession."

Britain had its share of gloomy economic news. The Confederation of British Industry said the country will suffer its sharpest economic contraction in almost two decades next year, and unemployment could rise to almost 3 million by 2010.

A survey from property website Rightmove said increasingly desperate sellers slashed asking price for homes in England and Wales by 2.9 percent in November, pushing them 7.1 percent below their level a year ago.

VOLATILE STOCKS

Following the recent bout of equity market volatility, Barclays Capital says U.S. stocks traded in a one-year range on a single day last Thursday.

"(It) is indicative of either a bottoming or a consolidation before another dip," the bank said in a note to clients.

"... a better approach might be to avoid the trap of seeking perfect timing, typically available only to immortals, and to instead to pursue a long-term strategy of averaging into a higher equity exposure."

U.S. stock futures were pointing to a weaker open on Wall Street later.

Weakening global growth fueled concerns about demand for energy and commodities. U.S. crude oil fell 2.7 percent to $55.49, edging toward last week's 22-month low. This is more than $90 below its record peak set in July.

The December bund futures fell 16 ticks while Japanese government bonds edged mostly higher.

The dollar ticked lower to 96.55 yen while sterling rose to $1.4911.

(Additional reporting by Simon Falush and Rebekah Curtis; Editing by Toby Chopra)