Asian stock markets lost ground for a third straight day Thursday over new concerns about Europe’s economic outlook after Moody’s Investors Service warned it may downgrade Spain’s debt rating.
Oil prices fell below $75 a barrel in Asia, as wilting stock markets dragged down the confidence of crude investors. The yen weakened against the dollar, while the euro remained virtually unchanged.
While a key central bank report released Thursday showed business confidence among Japan’s biggest manufacturers improved for a fifth straight quarter, the Nikkei index was still taking its cues from Wall Street, which closed out a painful second quarter Wednesday, leaving investors with heavy losses.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index declined 191.04 points, or 2 percent, to 9,191.60, extending losses after falling nearly 2 percent Wednesday to a seven-month low.
“Sentiment in Asia takes its clues from movement on Wall Street and in the eurozone,” said Ben Kwong Man Bun, chief operating officer at KGI Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. “The Nikkei is following the trend in the U.S.”
On Wall Street, stocks had their worst quarterly performance since the financial crisis. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, considered by many professional investors to be the best measure of the market’s health, lost 11.9 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average lost 10 percent. Both indexes are at their lows for 2010.
South Korea’s Kospi index shed 0.7 percent to 1,686.24, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.5 percent at 4,237.50.
The Shanghai Composite Index was down 1 percent to 2,373.79. Markets in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan also fell. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was closed for a public holiday.
On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 96.28 points, 1.0 percent, to 9,774.02, marking the fifth consecutive decline. It was also the lowest finish since early November.
Moody’s Investors Service placed Spain’s sovereign debt rating “on review for possible downgrade” Wednesday because of weak economic prospects.
Spain _ one of Europe’s most indebted countries _ has only just crawled out of nearly two years of recession after a boom, fueled by construction and free-flowing credit, imploded.
The nation’s public coffers have been drained by spending to cope with a jobless rate that now stands at 20 percent. Spain is under intense international pressure to slash a ballooning deficit.
In currencies, the dollar rose to 88.39 yen from 88.36 yen in New York late Wednesday. The euro was virtually unchanged at $1.2232.
Benchmark crude for August delivery was down 80 cents to $74.83 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 31 cents to settle at $75.63 on Wednesday.
By Lasvegassun
Tags: central bank, Dow Jones Industrial, european economy, financial crisis, financial system, global investors, loans, money, stock markets, us economic, wall street
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