The beleaguered euro fell to an 18-month low and global stocks sagged on Friday amid lingering nervousness about the state of European nation’s finances and the pace of the global recovery.
A cautious outlook from Sony, which released earnings after the close of trade on Thursday, set the negative tone in Asia by shining the spotlight on how the massive currency swings set off by the global jitters about Greece’s debt could affect companies as far away as Japan.
The consumer electronics giant, which makes about 25 percent of its sales in Europe, forecast a profit of 50 billion yen, or $541 million, for the current business year, but also warned that the fallout from the Greek debt crisis could undermine its return to profit.
This helped revive concerns about the impact of the still-feeble economic recovery in the United States, and of the huge savings efforts being put in place by European governments struggling to reduce their budget deficits.
And while the weak euro may be welcome news for European exporters, as it makes their goods cheaper for consumers overseas, it is a worry for non-European companies that rely heavily on sales to Europe, like those in export-dependent Japan and China.
Major indexes in Europe opened lower on Friday and accelerated their losses as the morning progressed, and by around lunchtime, the Euro Stoxx 50 index of blue chips dropped 2.4 percent.
In France the CAC 40 in Paris slumped 2.3 percent, and in London, the FTSE 100 lost 1.5 percent. The benchmark indexes in Germany and Switzerland were down about 1 percent.
On the foreign exchange markets, the euro fell below the $1.25 level, to $1.245 by late morning in Europe, its weakest level against the U.S. dollar since November 2008. It also weakened to 115 yen, from 116 yen earlier in the Asian trading day.The losses capped a tumultuous week in the global financial markets, which on Monday received much-needed support from a giant financing package that was designed to aid some of Europe’s most deeply indebted countries and stave off a potential debt default.
But sentiment has remained fragile, with several ups and downs during the course of the week. Although investors welcomed the global efforts to contain the crisis, they remained intensely nervous of the long-term costs and the prospects of a slowdown in Europe’s already weak recovery.
In a research note Friday, analysts at Barclays Capital summed up the overall picture: “Calm after the tempest, but still a perilous climb.”
By Friday, investor sentiment had turned decidedly negative again: Asian stocks were mostly down, and the sell-off gathered pace as the European day progressed.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index ended 1.5 percent lower, and Sony shares slumped 6.8 percent.
Elsewhere in the region, the stock markets in Taiwan and South Korea edged up less than 0.1 percent after similarly muted losses earlier in the session — mirroring the mixed performance shown by many of the world’s markets all week. The Straits Times index in Singapore slipped 0.4 percent.
“What surprised me was that there was no real feel-good factor,” said Markus Rösgen, head of regional strategy at Citigroup in Hong Kong, referring to the global market reaction to the bailout package. “But at the end of the day, Europe has written an insurance policy, rather than pumping actual money into the market.”
Many observers also believe a debt default — or a rescheduling of some of Greece’s debt — is still likely further down the line. This is continuing to weigh on the euro, which has received little respite from the bailout news. Since the start of the year, the European currency has fallen 13 percent against the dollar and 14 percent against the yen.http://www.soldak.com/forums
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