Asian stocks fell this week, snapping a fortnight of advance, as exporters dropped on speculation the world’s largest economy is headed toward recession and banks slid amid concern Europe may fail to contain its sovereign debt crisis.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 2.7 percent this week to 120.78, snapping a 3.9 percent two-week advance. The gauge tumbled 8.6 percent last month amid escalating concern over Europe’s debt crisis and after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US’ credit rating.
Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at about 11.9 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 11.5 times for the S&P 500 and 9.3 times for the STOXX 600.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 2.4 percent in a week when the Cabinet Office announced that the economy contracted more than an initial government estimate. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slipped 1.1 percent after a statistics bureau report showed the nation’s employers unexpectedly cut jobs for a second straight month last month.
Taiwan’s TAIEX edged up 0.8 percent from Thursday to close at 7,610.57 on Friday on thin trade as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the long Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. The gauge dropped 1.9 percent this week, its first decline in three weeks. The market is closed tomorrow.
South Korea’s KOSPI Index slid 2.9 percent for the week, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index retreated 1.7 percent, and the Shanghai Composite Index slipped 1.2 percent.
A report on Sept. 2 showed US payrolls were unchanged last month, the weakest reading since September last year.
“It was a scary report,” Dan North, chief US economist at Euler Hermes ACI in Owings Mills, Maryland, said in an interview from Singapore with Susan Li on Bloomberg TV on Monday. “When you get to negative job growth, which we’re very close to now, it means you’re already in a recession.”
Stocks fell even as US President Barack Obama outlined a jobs plan that would inject US$447 billion into the economy, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said policymakers would discuss ways to boost growth at their next meeting.
China’s inflation reading also weighed on markets. While it eased last month from a three-year high, National Bureau of Statistics figures showed, it remained high at 6.2 percent from a year earlier. A separate report showed industrial output growth in China trailed estimates.
Asian stocks also slipped this week after an election loss for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party and reports of a rift between Greece and the IMF fueled concern that support for bailing out indebted European nations is waning.
Among stocks that advanced this week, Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world’s second-largest chipmaker, jumped 4.2 percent to 19,900 won in Seoul, leading some technology stocks higher on speculation chip prices would recover.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila closed 0.24 percent, or 10.66 points, lower from Thursday at 4,346.07.
Wellington finished 0.48 percent, or 15.88 points, higher from Thursday at 3,323.93.
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MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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