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HONG KONG - ASIAN stocks fell to near a seven-week low on Monday after surprisingly weak US employment data hit regional exporters and sent the dollar tumbling towards a record low against the euro and an 8-year low against the yen.
Asian exporters face a tough outlook as their biggest market looks to be in or near a recession just as regional currencies surge. Financial firms' shares have been another big loser this year as they suffer the consequences of a global credit crunch.
Inflationary pressures remain another concern. Oil prices on Monday remained near a peak, despite the worsening global economic outlook, due to cold weather in parts of the United States, and gold moved back above US$975 (S1,352) an ounce.
'The (US employment) data is backward-looking so it has probably been in a recession for a couple of months at this stage and, certainly, markets have priced in that the (US) economy is slowing quite considerably,' said Mr Richard Herring, director at Burrell & Co in Australia.
'The biggest fear is that we don't know when this credit crunch is going to end. The fear of the unknown.' The MSCI measure of Asian stocks outside Japan fell 1.5 per cent by 10.10am Singapore time, after earlier in the day hitting its lowest since Jan. 23.
The prospects of a US recession and worsening global credit conditions have hit Asian stocks hard this year, with the MSCI index down 14 per cent as of last week, worse than the 12 per cent fall seen in the Standard & Poor's S&P 500 or the 10 per cent drop in the Dow Jones industrial average
Exporters such as Sony Corp, which depend on US consumers, dropped on data published on Friday showing US employers unexpectedly cut jobs last month at the steepest rate in nearly five years.
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