Asian shares tumbled on Monday, pushing the broader Tokyo market to a 28-year low, as investors extended a rout of global stocks and worried about a nightmare scenario of euro-zone breakup, U.S. economic relapse and a sharp slowdown in China.
Tokyo's broader Topix index lost 2.1 percent to 693.35, a level not seen since late 1983, as Asian markets plumbed new lows for 2012. Japan's Nikkei average fell 2 percent after last week marking its ninth straight week of losses, the longest such losing streak run in 20 years.
Investors continued to head for the relative safety of bonds after weak U.S. jobs data on Friday sparked a global stampede out of equities and hit the euro and some risky currencies hard.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan plunged 2.2 percent to their lowest since December. And U.S. stock futures pointed to yet more selling when investors wake up in North America on Monday, with S&P 500 futures down 0.8 percent in Asian trade.
The euro and the Australian dollar, which is closely linked to risk appetite, staged only meek recoveries from their battering on Friday when the Australian currency hit eight-month lows. The yen, perceived as a safer currency in times of crisis, retreated from its highs against the dollar.
Overall, though, investors hedged against global financial and economic crisis, heading for havens such as the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond whose yield fell below 0.80 percent to its lowest since July 2003. Ten-year JGB futures prices jumped to a 19-month high.
U.S. and German government bond yields had both hit record lows on Friday.
Analysts said the flight to bonds was expected to continue until clarity emerged on issues such as the outcome of Greek elections due on June 17 and the recapitalisation of European banks, now in the shadow of a Spanish banking crisis.
"It's not an issue of risk-on or risk-off anymore, it's nervousness all over until a clear direction emerges on a long-term trend," said Hisamitsu Hara, chief FX manager at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
"Currencies are locked in ranges with high volatility, with both the euro and the dollar facing limited upside due to their problems, while the yen's upside is also capped by wariness about intervention," he said.
U.S. job growth braked sharply for a third straight month in May and the jobless rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, with 69,000 jobs added to payrolls last month, the least since May last year. As well, 49,000 fewer jobs were created in the previous two months than had been thought.
"We may even see more talk of the need for additional quantitative easing," Standard Chartered Bank said in a research note, adding that the data had given ammunition to doves ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting on June 19-20.
Tokyo's broader Topix index lost 2.1 percent to 693.35, a level not seen since late 1983, as Asian markets plumbed new lows for 2012. Japan's Nikkei average fell 2 percent after last week marking its ninth straight week of losses, the longest such losing streak run in 20 years.
Investors continued to head for the relative safety of bonds after weak U.S. jobs data on Friday sparked a global stampede out of equities and hit the euro and some risky currencies hard.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan plunged 2.2 percent to their lowest since December. And U.S. stock futures pointed to yet more selling when investors wake up in North America on Monday, with S&P 500 futures down 0.8 percent in Asian trade.
The euro and the Australian dollar, which is closely linked to risk appetite, staged only meek recoveries from their battering on Friday when the Australian currency hit eight-month lows. The yen, perceived as a safer currency in times of crisis, retreated from its highs against the dollar.
Overall, though, investors hedged against global financial and economic crisis, heading for havens such as the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond whose yield fell below 0.80 percent to its lowest since July 2003. Ten-year JGB futures prices jumped to a 19-month high.
U.S. and German government bond yields had both hit record lows on Friday.
Analysts said the flight to bonds was expected to continue until clarity emerged on issues such as the outcome of Greek elections due on June 17 and the recapitalisation of European banks, now in the shadow of a Spanish banking crisis.
"It's not an issue of risk-on or risk-off anymore, it's nervousness all over until a clear direction emerges on a long-term trend," said Hisamitsu Hara, chief FX manager at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
"Currencies are locked in ranges with high volatility, with both the euro and the dollar facing limited upside due to their problems, while the yen's upside is also capped by wariness about intervention," he said.
U.S. job growth braked sharply for a third straight month in May and the jobless rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, with 69,000 jobs added to payrolls last month, the least since May last year. As well, 49,000 fewer jobs were created in the previous two months than had been thought.
"We may even see more talk of the need for additional quantitative easing," Standard Chartered Bank said in a research note, adding that the data had given ammunition to doves ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting on June 19-20.
