Asia shares stumble, oil skids to 27-mth lows
Asian share markets were mostly in the red on Wednesday as worries about waning global growth lifted safe-haven bonds, while shoving oil prices to their lowest in more than two years.
Extending a three-month-long decline, Brent oil sank $1.18 to $90.93 a barrel while U.S. crude tumbled $1.07 to $87.78. The protracted slide should be a windfall for consumer spending power, but is also a powerful force for disinflation in much of the developed world.
In Asia, Japan’s Topix shed 1.1 percent while the Nikkei dropped 1.0 percent.
A private survey of China’s services sector showed growth eased a touch in September, but that only served to reinforce expectations of further stimulus measures by Beijing.
Stimulus is also high on the agenda in Europe after German industrial output suffered the biggest decline since the height of the financial crisis, piling pressure on the European Central Bank to be more urgent in its actions.
“Weak numbers like the German production report fuel concern that ECB stimulus will be inadequate given the gloomier news,” said Westpac analyst James Shugg.
Source: reuters- Asia shares stumble, oil skids to 27-mth lows
