ASIA-Shares set to slide as growth top of worry list

WELLINGTON: Asian stocks are likely to fall on Wednesday as investors move away from worrying about U.S. debt woes and return to concerns about a stalling economy.

Major global stock markets stumbled badly, while gold hit a record high, as a report showing U.S. consumer spending fell unexpectedly in June for the first decline in nearly two years as incomes barely rose.

That followed data on Monday showing manufacturing activity stalled in July, which mirrored similarly weak reports from Asia and Europe. U.S. growth expectations for the first half of the year have also been scaled back, adding to the nervousness.

Wall Street's main indexes closed between 2.2 percent and 2.8 percent lower, with the broad based S&P 500 index giving up all of this year's gains. Consumer and banking stocks were hardest hit.

Asian stocks listed on Wall Street fell 2.1 percent, as did world stocks, as measured by the MSCI world equity index, which closed at its lowest level since late June.

British shares fell 1 percent while European shares were down 1.8 percent.

Concerns about Europe's underlying debt problems resurfaced with Italian bond yields hitting their highest level in 11 years, suggesting that Italy rather than Spain is becoming the new focus of the euro zone's debt woes.

Japanese markets, which were knocked lower on Tuesday after the soft U.S. data, face further losses. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago <2NKc1> fell 1.6 percent to be 160 points below the last closing level in Osaka.

Nikkei support is seen at 9,750, which is a potential strike price for Nikkei 225 options. The lingering threat that Japanese authorities may intervene to cap the yen's rise has lent some support to stocks.

Australian stocks are set to slide with share price index futures down 1.7 percent to be at a 111 point discount to the close of the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index. – Reuters