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Watch Art Cashin: Not too much to cheer about

Cashin says not much to cheer about
VIDEO2:1002:10
Cashin says not much to cheer about

Art Cashin, director of NYSE floor operations at UBS, said negative news regarding China, Japan and Europe is dragging down global markets.

Yesterday China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said the country would not dramatically change its economic policy, dousing hopes of more economic stimulus for the world's second largest economy. "That brought a malaise all around the rest of the world," Cashin said.

Slowing growth in China has put pressure on commodities and commodity stocks as China is the world's top copper consumer, using base metals to fuel its massive infrastructure projects. Slower growth means less demand, which is hurting commodity-rich countries as well: Brazil, South Africa and Australia.

Cashin said the Shanghai Composite's 1.7 percent drop is equivalent to about a 300-point decline on the Dow Jones industrial average.

Indications of another increase in Japan's consumption tax and downbeat comments from European Central Bank Head Mario Draghi about the region's growth also caused global markets to slip.

"Traders looked up and said, 'What do I have to cheer about?' " Cashin said. "Not too much right here."

—By CNBC's Kristen Scholer.