Asian stocks mostly fell on Monday, led by finance and material stocks, as Japan’s economy shrank the most since 1974 and G7 finance chiefs said the economic slowdown will persist through most of 2009. Technology shares advanced. Futures on the S&P500 Index dropped 0.6% after the index along with other US stock gauges on Friday ended their worst week so far this year.
Asian markets (Mon)
04:35am GMT
Nikkei down 30.29 (-0.39%) to 7,749.11
Topix up 4.66 (0.61%) 769.25
Hang Seng down 257.92 (-1.9%) at 13,296.75
US markets (Fri)
DJIA down 82.35 (-1.04%) at 7,850.41
Nasdaq down 7.35 (-0.48%) at 1,534.36
S&P500 down 8.35 (-1.0%) at 826.84
European markets (Fri)
FTSE100 down 12.65 (-0.30) at 4,189.59
Eurofirst 300 up 4.81 (0.61%) at 796.50
Currencies
04:32 GMT
€/$ 1.2755 (1.2924)
$/¥ 91.61 (90.83)
£/$ 1.4218 (1.4377)
Commodities (updated)
04:30 GMT
Brent Crude (Apr09) down $0.12 at $44.69
Light Crude (Mar09) down $0.01 at $37.50
100 Oz Gold (Feb09) down $3.40 at $938.80
Copper (Mar09) down $85.00 at $3,360.00
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.89 (2.78)
UK 3.55 (3.47)
Germany 3.13 (3.07)
Japan 1.28 (1.26)
Sources: FT, Reuters