Asian Stocks Led Lower By US, Yen Gains

Asian stocks fell, extending U.S. and European declines and putting the regional index on track for its longest run of weekly losses in more than 18 months. While the yen held gains against the dollar, currencies from Australia to South Korea weakened and copper futures dropped.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.6 percent by 9:19 a.m. in Tokyo, slipping 1.1 percent in a fourth week of declines. Japan’s Topix Index sank 1.3 percent after the yen surged the most since September. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.1 percent after the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to a one-month low. The Australian dollar dropped to the weakest level since July 2010 while the Korea won slipped a fifth day. Copper futures lost 0.2 percent as gold pared yesterday’s jump.

Global stocks are headed for their first weekly drop in three weeks amid mixed company earnings and signs of weakness in China’s economy. While the dollar slipped against major peers yesterday, it made up ground in emerging markets as Argentina devalued the peso and Turkey intervened to stem the lira’s slide. Samsung Electronics Co. posted fourth-quarter net income below analysts’ estimates after Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) climbed in extended U.S. trading after reporting better-than-projected results.

Bloomberg

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