Good thing Monday is a Holiday: Asian Markets Tanking Today

[JCMach1]

...A contraction in the American economy would likely hurt profits at Asian exporters, although increased trade and investment within the region has made Asia less dependent on the U.S. than in the past.

Investors sold off shares, appearing to be unimpressed by the economic stimulus plan President Bush announced Friday. The plan, which requires approval by Congress, calls for about $145 billion worth of tax relief to encourage consumer spending.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index slid 3.4 percent in morning trading to 13,395.28 points, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 2.3 percent at 24,624.14.

Markets in China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines were also down.

"People are certainly nervous about a potential recession in the U.S. spilling over to the rest of the world," said David Cohen, Director of Asian Economic Forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore.

"Maybe there's still some wariness about politicians are able to come up with a compromise and act sufficiently quickly" on a stimulus package, Cohen said. "I think the impact would be marginal anyway."... http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3kgMAkbLwyfxBdjzw8Pc4KZ7DhQD8UA3O9O0



... Stock plunge wipes off Dh26.4b from markets

By Ahmed A. Elewa, Staff Reporter
Published: January 21, 2008, 01:27

Abu Dhabi: UAE stocks fell sharply on Sunday, wiping out all the gains of this month, and more than Dh26.4 billion in market value.

The Dubai Financial Market general index fell 3.17 per cent to 5,868.35 after staying above the 6,000 mark since the start of the year. All leading shares declined by an average of 4 per cent... http://gulfnews.com/business/Markets/10183586.html

[lvx35]

1. Hang Seng is down more than that

http://new.quote.com/home.action

its down 4.9%, see above.

Apparently the asians don't see how Bush's economic stimulus package, which consists of taking $500 dollars of American's tax money and handing it back to them as a "gift" (aka robbing from our children) is actually going to help us produce more. Silly asians.

[radfringe]

2. that means our markets will have to work twice as hard

to catch up (or down) on the tanking tomorrow

[SpiralHawk]

3. "We have NO CONFIDENCE in Commander AWOL & corrupt republicon cronies." - Asian Markets

"Hell, those republicon homelander cronies are not only corrupt, they are also unfailingly incompetent. The fatcat republicon chickenhawk cronies get richer in America, and the honest, hardworking proles (especially honorable veterans) get screwed. That is sooooo wrong."

- Asian Markets

[RC]

4. You contradicted yourself

If the fat cat republican chickenhawk cronies get richer in America, how can they be incompetent? That is what they are trying to do and they are doing it very well.

[sendero]

5. Yeah...

... but as some point you kill the goose laying the golden eggs. These fat cats depend on the same economy the rest of us do.

Call it the law of unintended consequences.

[lvx35]

6. If only THEY could understand the problem with that.

Its like saying the goal of a football team is to win...Which is true, but if a team goes to such extents to win that they ruin the credibility of the sport through such obvious cheating, than they have won nothing, they have brought down the building in order to have access to the penthouse suite...In the end they'll just be standing on a pile of rubble, saying "we're on top!"