(menafn – ecpulse)
As Europe’s difficulties continue to be in focus, Asian stocks dropped for the fourth consecutive session where the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.6% at 12:30 in Tokyo.
While the business slump was seen deepening at a faster pace in April in the eurozone, suggesting that recession may stay until late this year, the aggressive austerity measures adopted by European officials are fueling distress.
In Netherlands, the Dutch prime minister presented his government’s resignation on Monday after officials disagreed on Saturday over spending and taxes which led to the collapse of the coalition.
Socialist Francois Hollande, who promised to renegotiate the European budget deal, is believed to win French presidency after beating Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round. Hollande said on Monday “Europe’s austerity measures have fueled despair”.
As cautious is seen building with conditions being unstable in Europe, investors are still losing their appetite for risk, pushing the yen higher against all of its 16 major counterparts, while the equities and commodities dropped.
In Australia the local currency weakened and the 10-year bond yields dropped to a record low after inflation unexpectedly fell in the first quarter to the slowest in over a decade, increasing the chances for a rate cut next week.
Some relief was felt after the Chinese bank, including policy banks, commercial lenders, rural credit cooperatives and foreign banks, earned a combined net income of 1.25 trillion yuan in 2011, the fastest growth in profits in at least four years.
Meanwhile markets will closely follow on Tuesday the Netherlands bonds auction between 1.5 to 2.5 billion euros, Spain will tenders up to 3 billion euros in short-term bills, while Italy will sell almost 7 billion euros of bonds.
Data later today may show consumer confidence may drop for a second month while new home sales and house prices may increase in the US. Western Union, AT&T and Apple are among the US companies to report their first-quarter earnings.
