Asia Stocks Head for Biggest Weekly Drop This Year; Banks Fall

[marmar]

OP's note: The Nikkei, which hasn't been open that long today (friday in japan), is down 450 as I'm posting this.


from Bloomberg:


Asia Stocks Head for Biggest Weekly Drop This Year; Banks Fall

By Chen Shiyin and Emma O'Brien

March 7 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell, set for their largest weekly drop this year, as U.S. home foreclosures rose to a record and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said UBS AG may have more writedowns, deepening concern that credit losses will worsen.

National Australia Bank Ltd. plunged to the lowest in more than three years, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan's second-biggest publicly traded bank, fell the most in two weeks. Allco Finance Group Ltd., an asset manager struggling to repay debt, plunged in Sydney after bankers seized 14 percent of its shares as collateral for unpaid loans.

Financial stocks were the biggest drag on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which slumped 2 percent to 141.13 as of 9:15 a.m. in Tokyo. The benchmark has lost 4.4 percent this week, the biggest decline since the five days ended Dec. 14. It had rebounded as much as 13 percent from a 14-month low reached on Jan. 22.

``All the uncertainty in the U.S. and surrounding the credit crunch is bearing down again on markets around the world,'' said Shane Oliver, who helps manage the equivalent of $113 billion at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney. ``Asian markets look like they're going to re-test their January lows.''

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average retreated 3.1 percent to 12,805.23, taking its weekly decline to 5.9 percent. That would be the benchmark's largest drop since the five days ended Nov. 9. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index tumbled 3.3 percent, on course for its biggest decline since Jan. 22. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPjTSPNhXvCc&refer=home

[Warpy]

1. Great, tomorrow's going to be another fun Friday

I'm so very glad I don't work on Wall Street.

I told my broker what is going to happen to the stock market over the next 6 months. Although his job is to blow happy smoke up my ass, he reluctantly agreed.

Don't ya just love it when you're right?

The crash, as usual, started at the top when structured investment vehicles were found to be worthless paper created out of snipped up subprime mortgages and which had been bid up and up every time they changed hands.

It's already working its way downward as credit gets tighter and tighter.

[femrap]

2. Then there are those $45

trillion in derivatives as well. I guess this is what is referred to as The Atoning for the Greed.

I keep two protest signs in the trunk of my car: ATONE FOR THE GREED and WAR IS A RACKET.

I taped play money on them. Don't they teach these 2 things in schools?

[Elspeth]

3. kick

:kick: