US mortgage blues

GLOBAL MARKETS/ STOCK REPORT

Asian stocks fell, led by Toyota Motor Corporation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, after the largest US mortgage lender said home-loan losses are increasing.

"The sub-par outlook for the US economy will continue into the first half of next year and so the market is focusing on the negatives,'' said Shane Oliver, who helps manage the equivalent of $83 billion at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney.

Canon and Honda Motor Company dropped after the yen rose beyond 120 a dollar for the first time in two months. BHP Billiton slid in tandem with oil and metals prices. South Korea's Kospi index closed above 2,000 for the first time after Moody's Investors Service raised the nation's credit ratings, while China's CSI 300 Index also ended at a high.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia Pacific Index lost 0.5 per cent to 160.67 in Tokyo, after rising 0.9 per cent to a record yesterday. Consumer stocks such as Toyota and raw-material producers including BHP were the biggest drags among the measure's 10 industry groups.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 0.8 per cent to 17,858.42, and benchmarks in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore all fell from records.

Europe
European stocks fell for a second day after earnings and forecasts from Volvo, Randstad Holding, Hermes International and STMicroelectronics revived concerns that profit growth is faltering.

Volvo, the world's second-largest truckmaker, dropped the most in more than a year after reporting profit that missed analysts' estimates. Randstad Holding headed for its biggest decline in almost six years after the world's third-largest staffing company said it's "cautious'' for the third quarter. Hermes International fell after saying annual profit will stagnate and STMicroelectronics slid as second-quarter sales dropped.

US
US stock-index futures rose. Amazon.com Inc, the world's biggest online retailer, rallied in Europe after reporting second-quarter profit that topped analysts' estimates.

Apple, the maker of the iPhone, and Boeing, the world's largest producer of commercial airplanes, are among the companies scheduled to report earnings today. Shares of Apple gained in Germany, while Boeing declined.

More than one-quarter of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index posted second-quarter results as of July 20.

Profit growth has averaged 8.1 per cent, compared with an estimated 5.8 per cent growth from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

"Positive earnings surprises cancel out the negative ones,'' said Bert Jansen, an equity strategist at Exane Paribas SA in Paris. "The market is stabilising.''

US stocks slumped the most since March yesterday after Countrywide Financial Corporation, which accounts for almost a fifth of US mortgages, said second-quarter net income tumbled 33 per cent.