9-Jan-2012 - Asian Shares Mostly Down

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By JOHN PHILLIPS And WEI-ZHE TAN SINGAPORE—Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Monday as continued concerns over the outlook for Europe overshadowed better-than-expected U.S. jobs data on Friday, and pushed the euro to fresh lows against the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen. Concerns about the ability of European leaders to find a comprehensive solution to the eurozone's ongoing sovereign-debt and banking crisis amid growing worries over the outlook for Greece, Italy and Spain took center stage on Monday ahead of a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The uncertainty eclipsed positive U.S. economic data on Friday, which showed a drop in the U.S. unemployment rate to its lowest level since February 2009. "Recent global macro data has on balance been good, but the (European Union's) deleveraging story will likely continue to weigh on Asian markets early in 2012, particularly given a heavy sovereign issuance calendar in (the first quarter)," said analysts at Goldman Sachs in a note to clients. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.1%, South Korea's Kospi Composite tumbled 1.3%, Hong Kong's cheap nba jerseys Hang Seng Index slipped 0.8%, China's Shanghai Composite Index added 1.4% and India's Sensex declined 0.6%. Markets in Japan were shut for a holiday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 38 points in screen trade. The euro fell to a 16-month low of 1.2666 against the U.S. dollar custom nhl jerseys and a fresh 12-year low of ¥97.280 against the Japanese yen amid growing concerns over the ability of European leaders to contain Europe's sovereign-debt crisis. Investors were spooked by a Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an interview given by Czech central bank governor Miroslav Singer to Czech daily Hospodarske Noviny, in which Mr. Singer said that Greece should leave the eurozone and devalue its new currency unless Europe is willing to provide massive funding for the indebted country. "Unease about the possibility of sovereign downgrades across the eurozone, strains in the European banking system, softening economic data, and the likely market participant disappointment about the ECB's policy response at this week's meeting should increase risk aversion related U.S. dollar demand," said CBA FX Strategist Peter Dragicevich in a note. The single currency was at 1.2686 against the dollar, from 1.2716 late on Friday in New York, and at ¥97.61 against the yen, from ¥97.92. The dollar was at ¥76.94, from ¥76.96. The Australian dollar was lower after Australia's November retail sales came in nearly unchanged on-month compared with a 0.3% rise tipped by economists. The Australian dollar was recently at US1.0165 from US1.0180 before the data. Materials plays were lower in the region amid concerns over slowing demand from China for 2012 and as a stronger U.S. dollar weighed on demand for metals. In Seoul Posco fell 2.1% and Hyundai Steel dropped 1.8%, while Rio Tinto slid 0.8%, and Bluescope Steel fell 1.2% in Sydney. In Hong Kong, China's three largest state oil companies pulled back on weaker crude prices, and also due to some profit-taking after surging on Friday on China's windfall tax reform. Cnooc declined 1.5%, PetroChina slipped 0.2% and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. dropped 1.7%. Most retail stocks in Sydney lost ground on the disappointing retail sales numbers. Harvey Norman fell 1.1%, while David Jones dropped 2.5%. Spot gold was at 1,609.00 per troy ounce, down 7.60 from its New York settlement on Friday. February Nymex crude oil futures were 50 cents lower at 101.06 buy NFL Jerseys per barrel on Globex. Write to John Phillips at john.phillips@dowjones.com

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