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(CEP News) - Investors in Asian markets are pulling out after more record-breaking lows were reached during the North American trading session.
In North America, Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index closed down 573 points to 10230, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 370 points to 9956, the S&P 500 closed down 42 points to 1057 and the Nasdaq closed down 84 points to 1863. Peter Pontikis, strategist with Suncorp said Asian markets have been "a sea of red, with investors dumping stocks in favour of safe-haven sovereign debt." Japanese fixed income markets are gaining from the flight to safety, while in stocks the Nikkei fell briefly below the 10,000 mark for the first time since December 2003 and the ASX fell by 3.0%. The yen's sharp moves upwards during the U.S. session are leveling off. David Watt, strategist with RBC Capital Markets said the earlier moves were "mind-boggling." Patricia Gacis, strategist with ANZ markets said, "The JPY surged across the board on risk aversion. EUR/JPY fell to a 3-year low towards JPY135.0 while USD/JPY fell towards JPY100.0." The most startling moves have been the plunge in the Australian dollar, which fell briefly below 0.7000 earlier today. Benjamin Reitzes, economist with BMO Capital Markets said, "The Australian dollar was among the worst hit currencies amid falling commodity prices and expectations of an RBA rate cut plunging over 7% (as much as 9.6% intraday), the biggest decline in over 25 years." Asia-Pacific fixed income markets are declining and equities are lower with yields on Australian 10-year bonds up 2.7 bps to 5.15 % and Japanese 10-year government bonds up 2.9 bps to 1.41 %. Sydney's S&P ASX 200 is down 96.70 points to 4443.699. The Japanese Nikkei is down 300.26 points to 10172.83 and the Hang Seng down 878.64 points to 16803.76. Yields on three-year Australian bonds were down 13.2 bps to 5.75 and the Australian 90-day March 09 contract was up 17.0 ticks to 94.43. The Euroyen March 09 contract was up 3.5 ticks to 99.28. The Australian dollar was down 0.12 cents to 0.7210 against the USD and down 0.04 cents to 0.7937 against the Canadian dollar. Against the yen, the U.S. dollar was down 0.26 points to 101.56 and the Canadian dollar was down 0.36 points to 92.28. The euro was up 0.10 cents to 1.3517 USD. All data taken at 9:35 p.m. EDT. By Megan Ainscow,
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