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The Today's News

Asian markets ease after flat Wall St lead

HONG KONG: Asian markets fell on Thursday after Wall Street closed flat in response to a mixed bag of US economic data, with trade cautious ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke. The dollar managed to hold on to gains made against the yen in New York on the back of an upward revision of US gross domestic product growth in the three months to June. Tokyo eased 0.70 percent, Hong Kong fell 1.20 percent, Sydney shed 1.02 percent, Shanghai lost 0.16 percent and Seoul slipped 1.26 percent. In its closely-watched Beige Book the Fed said the US economy continued to grow at a tepid pace in the past two months, with slight improvements in retail sales and the housing market. However, the report, prepared ahead of the central bank's policy meeting next month, said many districts saw a softening in manufacturing, the sector that has been a key driver of the recovery from a deep 2008-2009 recession. Earlier Wednesday the government said the economy had expanded at a faster pace in the second quarter than first thought. The Commerce Department reported a clip of 1.7 percent for gross domestic product growth in the April-June period, revised from 1.5 percent. On Wall Street the Dow and S&P 500 were flat while the Nasdaq rose just 0.13 percent. But the news lifted the dollar late Wednesday and it was sitting it 78.70 yen by the end of New York trade, from around 78.50 yen earlier in Asia. And on Thursday the US unit held up, buying 78.73 yen. Attention is now on a meeting of central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Bernanke is due to give a speech on Friday, with investors hoping he will outline plans for another round of monetary easing to kickstart the economy.