Asian stocks slumped, snapping a two- day rally, as focus shifted from easing credit markets to weakening global economic growth, profits and commodity prices.
Toyota Motor Corp. dropped 1.9 percent on a newspaper report the company may post the first decline in auto sales in a decade. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest listed bank, slumped 4.4 percent after the Nikkei newspaper said earnings probably dropped by half in the first six months of the financial year. BHP Billiton Ltd. lost 4.6 percent as metals prices fell.
``We've only just started to see the impact of the growth slowdown on the real economy,'' said Angus Gluskie, who helps oversee A$450 million at White Funds Management in Sydney. ``The companies that have been reporting now haven't been materially impacted by the slowdown yet.''
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 2.5 percent to 90.39 as of 10:00 a.m. in Tokyo. The gauge rallied 6.2 percent in the past two days as money market rates dropped around the globe, boosting confidence the financial crisis is abating.
The index has plunged 43 percent this year, set for its worst annual performance since it was created in 1987, as credit market turmoil caused losses and writedowns of more than $660 billion at financial institutions and slowed global growth.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 2.9 percent to 9,038.05, led by Konica Minolta Holdings Inc., after the yen surged to a four-year high against the euro. South Korea's Kospi index fell to the lowest in three years after Samsung Electronics Co. scrapped its bid for SanDisk Corp. Equity benchmark indexes in Australia and New Zealand also dropped.
U.S. Decline
U.S. stocks slid yesterday as companies from Texas Instruments Inc. to Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. reported profit and revenue that missed analysts' estimates. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 3.1 percent. S&P futures rose 0.2 percent in trading today after Apple Inc. posted a 26 percent gain in profit, beating estimates.
Toyota fell 1.9 percent to 3,720 yen. Japan's largest automaker is likely to see sales drop 2 percent to about 8.3 million vehicles this year, the first decline in a decade, the Nikkei said. Last month, Toyota's U.S. car sales tumbled the most in 21 years, prompting it to offer no-interest loans.
Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest, lost 4.1 percent to 56,000 won. Isuzu Motors Ltd., Japan's third-biggest maker of commercial vehicles, tumbled 7.1 percent to 195 yen.
Mitsubishi UFJ fell 4.4 percent to 812 yen. The bank's first-half profit may fall about 50 percent because of higher costs to dispose of bad loans and writedowns on its shareholdings, Nikkei said today.
Closest rivals Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. may post earnings that are lower than their estimates, the newspaper said. Mizuho lost 3.6 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui sank 5.1 percent.
Lower Metals
BHP, the world's biggest mining company, declined 4.6 percent to A$27.96 after the London Metal Exchange LMEX Index fell 3.3 percent to the lowest level since November 2005.
First-quarter iron ore output rose 15 percent, crude-oil and condensates output surged 43 percent, while production from Escondida -- the world's largest copper mine -- slumped 32 percent in the September quarter, BHP said today.
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Japan's biggest nickel maker, tumbled 5.7 percent to 811 yen after Credit Suisse Group cut its rating on the shares to ``neutral'' from ``outperform,'' citing lower forecasts for metals prices.
Konica Minolta, the world's second-largest maker of film used in liquid-crystal displays, tumbled 10 percent to 773 yen. The company sees an 850 million yen drop in operating profit for every 1 yen gain against the euro, according to KBC Securities. Olympus Corp., which generates more than a quarter of its sales in Europe, slumped 6.9 percent to 2,245 yen.
Stronger Yen
The yen strengthened to as much as 130.18 per euro today, the highest since June 2004. The stronger yen reduces the value of sales generated overseas.
Samsung, the world's biggest computer-memory maker, slipped 0.8 percent to 515,000 won after saying it scrapped plans to buy SanDisk, citing ongoing turmoil in financial markets. Toshiba Corp., which partners with SanDisk in flash memory production, jumped as much as 3.2 percent to 382 yen on relief the company won't be squeezed out of the market.
Steelmakers dropped after Shoji Muneoka, chairman of the Japan Iron & Steel Federation and president of the world's second biggest producer Nippon Steel Corp., said yesterday Japanese producers may lower output this quarter as demand has weakened.
Nippon Steel lost 3.8 percent to 2,390 yen. Posco, the largest maker of the alloy in South Korea, tumbled 3.9 percent to 308,500 won. BlueScope Steel Ltd., Australia's largest steelmaker, slid 5.3 percent to A$4.49.
