While the Eurozone’s relentless debt crisis was surely a contributor, as was the slowdown in China, it was likely Friday’s unexpectedly poor U.S. labor data – suggesting that the U.S. economy is not immune to global concerns, after all – that jarred Asian stock markets today. The Nikkei, Japan’s major equities market, was down 2% to a 6-month low; the index has fallen some 19.3% since late March as the situation in the Eurozone and China have weighed heavily on Japanese exports. Meanwhile the broader Japanese Topix index slipped to a 28-year low with a 2.1% loss. Read more
