Asia stocks fall amid US jobs, housing gloom

Asian stock markets fell on Friday as gloomy economic reports from the world's two biggest economies piled, heightening fears of a sharper global downturn.

The US Labor Department reported on Thursday that the four-week average of applications for unemployment benefits jumped to the highest level in nine months. Meanwhile, sales of previously owned homes fell 1.5 per cent in May.

A further sign of weakness came from the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve, which issued a report showing that manufacturing in the northeast had experienced a sharp decrease due to a steep fall in company orders.

Appetite for financial assets such as stocks was also dented by the results of a monthly HSBC survey, which showed that manufacturing in China has continued to contract.

China's growth has been a pillar of the global economy in recent years, so its slowdown has been of particular concern to investors.

Meanwhile, infighting over Europe's heavy debt burden continued to brew, leading IMF head Christine Lagarde to warn that the euro is under "acute stress" and to urge leaders of the 17 countries that use the currency to consider steps such as jointly issuing debt.

"With signs of weakness in the US economy, the persistence of the eurozone debt crisis and the threat of a hardlanding in China looming, the prospect of a synchronized economic slowdown is real," analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore said in a market commentary.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.6 per cent to 8,774.77 and South Korea's Kospi slid 2 per cent to 1,851.47. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index 1.1 per cent to 19,050.13 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 1 per cent at 4,045.80.

Falling commodities prices hurt mining and raw materials shares in Australia. BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, fell 2.5 per cent. Newcrest Mining Ltd. dropped 3 per cent and OZ Minerals Ltd. lost 3.8 per cent.

Sentiment was also shaken after Moody's Investors Service lowered the credit ratings of 15 major banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, saying their long-term prospects for profitability and growth are shrinking.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 251 points, its second-worst loss of the year. The Dow lost 2 per cent to close at 12,573.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 2.2 per cent to 1,325.51 and the Nasdaq composite fell 2.4 per cent to 2,859.09. All three indexes lost their gains for the week.

Benchmark oil for August delivery rose 31 cents to $78.51 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $3.25, or 4 per cent, to settle at $78.20 per barrel in New York on Thursday.

In currency trading, the euro fell slightly to $1.2555 from $1.2558 late on Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 80.18 yen from 80.29 yen.