Asian markets spiral on earnings gloom

Stock markets across Asia tumbled for a second straight day as investors followed a dive on Wall Street and fears for corporate earnings further eroded confidence.

Worries about the global banking sector, bleak export data from Japan and figures showing a contraction in the Eurozone economy also helped fuel pessimism.

The earnings season got off to a miserable start with US aluminium giant Alcoa announcing a massive first quarter loss and Japan's Sharp announcing a worse-than-expected net loss for the past financial year.

Hong Kong slid more than 4.0 percent, Tokyo 2.69 percent, Sydney ended 2.34 percent off and Seoul dived almost three percent. Markets throughout the region were in negative territory.

Markets fell Tuesday on profit-taking following weeks of rallies.

It also followed a dismal trading day Tuesday in the United States, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.3 percent and the S&P 500 shed 2.4 percent.

Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities, a Hong Kong brokerage, said investors in Asia were "scrambling for an exit" after the tumble on Wall Street.

"It is all the fault of the US market," Lun said, referring to comments made by billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros Tuesday that the month-long rally in the United States was a bear-market rally because the economy was still shrinking.

European stocks opened lower Wednesday, with the London FTSE 100 losing 1.33 percent, Paris's the CAC 40 sliding 1.17 percent and Frankfurt's DAX down 0.83 percent.

Alcoa posted a net loss of 497 million dollars for the first quarter, with prices and demand down dramatically in the face of the global slowdown.

The higher than expected loss reflected a decline of 61 cents per share.

"Alcoa has come out with earnings and losses which are as dismal as a vacation in hell without any water and without any flame retardant," said Jon Ong of 24/7 Wall Street.

Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corp. said Wednesday that it had suffered its first-ever loss due to the economic downturn, driven by soured investments and restructuring costs.

The group said it made a net loss of about 130 billion yen 1.3 billion dollars in the financial year to March, based on preliminary results, worse than its earlier prediction of a 100-billion-yen shortfall.

The company reported an operating profit of nearly 184 billion yen in the previous year.

Sharp's struggles reflect the difficulties faced by export-dependent Japan. Government data showed Wednesday that the surplus in the country's current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, more than halved in February from a year earlier.

The surplus dived 55.6 percent to about 1.12 trillion yen as plunging demand for Japanese goods kept Asia's biggest economy deep in recession and headed for its worst economic slump since World War II.

Meanwhile, state media reported Wednesday that China's banks lent a record 1.87 trillion yuan 270 billion dollars in March as they respond to government calls for growth-boosting measures.





AP/Ron Edmonds

Prices, review, pictures

Prices, review, pictures

Listings provided by Cars.com