Miners lead decline

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks fell the most in a month after Nippon Electric Glass Company and Advantest Corporation reported lower earnings and metals prices slumped.

BHP Billiton completed its biggest two-day drop in almost five months, while Nippon Electric Glass plunged the most in two decades. Nomura Holdings had its best gain in five years and Hyundai Motor Company rose to the highest since September after reporting profit that beat analyst estimates.

"Bigger mining companies are essentially proxies to the metal prices, which can be very volatile,'' said Mark Tan, who helps oversee about $3 billion in Asian equities at UOB Asset Management in Singapore.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia Pacific Index slid 1.2 per cent to 158.64 in Tokyo, set for the biggest drop since June 27. Benchmarks in South Korea and Taiwan fell the most in more than four months as investors judged that recent gains were excessive. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.9 per cent to 17,702.09. Key indexes in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia slid after rising to records earlier this week.

Europe

European stocks declined for a third day after disappointing earnings from Legal & General Group, Britain's third-biggest insurer, and Thomson of France reignited concerns that profit growth is slowing.

Legal & General fell the most in four years after the company said that flood claims and a drop in new-business profit held back first-half earnings. Prudential, the UK's second- biggest insurer, also slid. Thomson, which processed the film for "Shrek the Third,'' had its biggest slide since February 2006 after the company's cameras unit posted an unexpected loss.

US

US stock-index futures fell before more than 50 Standard & Poor's 500 Index companies report earnings today.

Shares of Dow Chemical Company, the largest US chemical maker, slid. The company reported second-quarter earnings. 3M Company and Exxon Mobil Corporation, two Dow Jones Industrial Average members due to report quarterly earnings, also retreated.

So far 249 members of S&P 500 have reported second-quarter earnings. They are showing profit growth of 11.3 per cent, beating current estimates of 5.8 per cent. S&P 500 futures expiring in September decreased 5.8 to 1517.90 in London. Dow average futures retreated 43 to 13,798.

Nasdaq-100 Index futures slid 1.25 to 2025.25.