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Having an Ugly Day in Asia

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The Nikkei was down as low as 600 below the previous day’s close. It is now down a bit over 400 points. Other reports from the region via Bloomberg:

Asian stocks fell for a third day after Sony Corp. slashed its earnings forecast and South Korea’s economic growth weakened, deepening concern a global slowdown is hurting demand for the region’s exports.

Sony plunged 12 percent to the lowest level since 1995 after cutting full-year profit expectations for the second time in as many quarters. Samsung Electronics Co. lost 4.4 percent in Seoul on net income that fell the most in three years. Lotte Shopping Co., South Korea’s biggest department-store operator, dropped for an eighth day as profit missed estimates and concern grew that the nation is heading for a recession. A slump in shipping rates drove China Cosco Holdings Company Ltd. down 9 percent.

“Exporters are likely to see their sales drop off a cliff,” said Hiroshi Fujimoto, a fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, which manages the equivalent of $5.7 billion. “Slowing U.S. and European growth have sent shockwaves through the economies of the developing world.”

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 3.3 percent to 82.47 as of 11:45 a.m. in Tokyo. The gauge is set to lose 5.5 percent this week, the seventh drop in eight weeks, and close at its lowest level since May 2004. About 10 stocks fell for each that rose on the 990-member index today.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 4.7 percent to 8,060.08, as Sony led consumer-electronics makers lower. South Korea’s Kospi index tumbled 5.3 percent, dropping below 1,000 for the first time since 2005. Stocks fell in other markets open for trading except New Zealand. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures retreated 0.9 percent.

Sony has particular significance in Japan as a bellwether. A good earnings report from Sony marked the bottom of the last Japanese share market downturn, when the Nikkei reached a low of 7000.

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7 comments

  1. doc holiday

    Tidbits:

    Japan's Nikkei-225 and the Dollar/Yen Dance

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/…ollar-yen- dance

    For instance, when the Nikkei fell below the psychological 10,000 in February 2002, former MOF chief Masajuro Shiokawa drew up plans to buy 2 trillion yen of stocks directly from banks, and ordered the Bank of Japan to increase its monthly bond purchases to 1 trillion yen to drive bond yields lower. The MOF bought Nikkei futures contracts, squeezing short sellers ahead of the March 31st, fiscal year end.
    Shiokawa then tightened short-selling rules and increased surveillance of bearish foreign brokers who accounted for half of the average daily trading volume on the TSE.

    In the biggest intervention operation in financial history, Japanese authorities sold a record 20 trillion yen in 2003 and another 15 trillion yen in the first three months of 2004, to purchase $300 billion US dollars, and prevent the greenback from falling below 102-yen. The intervention began to bear fruit in 2005-06, when Federal Reserve rate hikes to 5.25% lifted the USD from 105-yen to as high as 120-yen.

    > Now today (from Bloomberg) “Should the Nikkei fall below 8,000, 10-year yields will decline to 1.4 percent,'' said Koji Ochiai, a senior market economist at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. Ltd. in Tokyo.

    The government will compile a second economic stimulus package by the end of the month after having drafted a 2 trillion yen ($20.8 billion) plan in August. Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said on Oct. 21 that selling bonds to pay for an additional package remains an option.

  2. m

    America is still, at least for now, the world leader. All the other markets are just pale, lame reflections of the U.S. market.

    If the U.S. has a good day, the world markets have a good day. If the U.S. has a bad day, the world markets have a bad day. The only time it’s different is when world markets are so fearful that they project U.S. markets will go down the next day and so they fall preemptively.

    The U.S. market today was down big except for some end of day PPT action. It’s on the verge of a potentially enormous collapse which could take the dow down to 7000-7500.

  3. doc holiday

    Bad days on the increase everywhere, as work progresses on fixing The Large Hadron Collider; next week should really be fun!

    Off topic, to be sure, but obviously anything goes these days and what a shock, that systemic chaos is on the rise everywhere and now — glowing cats:

    … His eyes glow ghoulishly in the right light, just like any other cat's – but so do his nostrils, gums and tongue.

    Mr Green Genes of New Orleans in the U.S. is the country's first 'glow in the dark' ginger tom.

    In daylight he looks normal, but put him in a darkened room and switch on an ultraviolet light, and his face will beam out a bright green.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1080042/Meet-Mr-Green-Genes–worlds-glow-dark-cat.html

    > I can just see it now, little blue and green glow-in-the-dark fleas and glow-in-the-dark fur everywhere.

  4. Anonymous

    Throwing caution to the wind operators of the Large Hadron Collider increase power to the magnets even after cracks in the foundation of the machine become noticeable and it shakes violently.

    ‘Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead’, cried the mad scientists.

  5. Anonymous

    Holy glowing cat fur:

    “Financial markets have crashed and are out of control,” said Yuji Ogino, an executive director at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management Co., which manages the equivalent of $28 billion in Tokyo. “This crash is different from anything I’ve experienced since getting into this business in the late 1980s and it’s hard to find ways to ride out the situation.”

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