The U.S. deficit-cutting congressional supercommittee is expected to say today it failed to reach agreement on at least $1.2 trillion in savings, a Democratic aide said, setting the stage for automatic cuts. Japan’s exports fell, Singapore said growth will probably slow and Germany’s Finance Ministry said the country’s expansion has gotten “noticeably slower.” France’s rising financing costs are increasing the nation’s fiscal challenges, according to report issued by Moody’s Investors Service today.

The U.S. “story is unlikely to fully knock Europe off the front pages but it has ramifications for the fiscal outlook over the next couple of years,” Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank AG in London, wrote in a research note. “If the automatic cuts are activated then the U.S. will be going through the same austerity that has not proved particularly successful so far in Europe with regards to growth.”

STI is going RED on opening for Tues, same for regional bourses,  Nikkie and for Hang Seng and others.