NIKKEI 225 Starts Friday Down 2.47%

Thursday the Dow Jones finished down 200 points, the trend is continuing this morning in Asia as the NIKKEI 225 fell 2.47%. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index is set for its biggest weekly decline in more than a month as a Bank of Japan survey showed companies planned to further cut investment, while U.S. economic data missed economist estimates.

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell, dragging the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to a one-month low, as concerns the economic recovery will falter caused automakers and mining shares to drop. Treasuries and the yen rose as demand for haven assets increased.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM), which gets 31 percent of its revenue in North America, retreated 2.9 percent in Tokyo after its U.S. sales slumped last month. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, sank 2.6 percent in Sydney after metal prices dropped. Yields on 10-year Treasuries fell to the lowest level since May and the yen extended gains after CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT) said it may file for bankruptcy protection.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 1.9 percent to 114.56 as of 1:02 p.m. in Tokyo, set for the lowest close since Sept. 7. The gauge has declined 2.7 percent this week, during which the measure capped its second-straight quarterly advance. It has climbed 58 percent in the past seven months.

“There seems to be growing consensus that the pace of the recovery will slow,” said Kiyoshi Ishigane, a senior strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., which oversees the equivalent of $56 billion. “There is a question mark over a further rebound in consumption and production.”

SOURCE: http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJR8Yr20ooiM