'Asian stock markets plunge
By DIKKY SINN Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG (AP) -- Asian markets plunged Wednesday on growing speculation the U.S. economy - a vital export market - is sliding into a recession that could lead to a global slowdown.
Investors dumped stocks after an overnight sell-off on Wall Street and on news that Citigroup Inc. had lost nearly $10 billion in the fourth quarter as it wrote down mountains of bad mortgage assets - the latest fallout from the credit crisis. Weak U.S. retail sales figures added to the gloom.
"American financial mismanagement has brought us to this economic meltdown," said Francis Lun, a general manager at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong. "Asian stock markets are all suffering; nobody has escaped."
In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng index sank 5.4 percent - its biggest percentage drop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - to 24,450.85. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index fell 3.4 percent to 13,504.51 points, its lowest in more than two years.
Markets in Australia, China, India, South Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines also dropped sharply on uncertainty about the U.S. economic outlook and the full extent of the subprime mortgage crisis.
In Europe, where markets had fallen sharply Tuesday, stocks slid again. Britain's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX were both down about 1.2 percent in morning trading.
Concerns about the U.S. financial system were also felt in the currency market, which sent the dollar below 106 yen, its lowest in 2 1/2 years.
Investors saw more damage from the credit crisis when Citigroup said Tuesday it had written down $18.1 billion in bad assets. That help send the Dow Jones industrial average down 277 points, or 2.2 percent, to 12,501.11.'
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