GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks slip in long wait for U.S. jobs data
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HONG KONG, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Asian stocks edged down and the U.S. dollar drifted higher on Friday, as investors braced for the December U.S. payrolls data, expected to show sharp job losses and dash hopes for a speedy recovery this year.
Major European stock markets were expected to open as much as 1 percent higher, according to financial bookmakers, after Citigroup (C.N) agreed to support legislation that would let troubled borrowers save their homes through bankruptcy.
Analysts predict the world's largest economy probably shed more than half a million jobs last month, bringing job losses in 2008 to a post-war record, boding ill for Asia's struggling exporters who have been starved of demand from developed nations.
Global equities, emerging market currencies and high-grade credit had all benefited in the last month from a steady improvement in investors' risk tolerance. However, dour corporate outlooks, including from the world's top retailer Wal-Mart, and prospects for higher unemployment have curbed appetite for riskier assets. [ID:nSP409831]
"Market watchers are already prepared for bad news on the jobs front. They expect unemployment to have risen to 7 percent in December," said Linus Yip, strategist with First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong. "But the real test is in how Wall Street will react to the news tonight."
The MSCI index of stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS inched down 0.2 percent, creeping further away from a one-month high reached on Wednesday.
Japan's Nikkei share average .N225 finished 0.45 percent lower, with big exporters such as Honda Motor Co (7267.T) and Canon Inc (7751.T) among the biggest drags on the index.
The scandal surrounding Indian IT company Satyam Computer Services (SATY.BO) sparked fears foreign investors may pull out of the country, especially so soon after attacks that paralysed Mumbai late last year. [ID:nBOM394323] The chairman of the company resigned on Wednesday after saying that 94 percent of the cash and bank balances on the company's book at the end of September did not exist.
The BSE index .BSESN was down 2 percent, and Satyam's stock was savaged, falling 50 percent.
NO CHOICE BUT CUT
South Korean stocks tied with Indian equities as the region's biggest decliners, with the benchmark KOSPI also down 2 percent after the country's central bank cut interest rates by 50 basis points to a record low and warned Asia's fourth-largest economy would slow further. Continued...
