Asia Stocks Drop as Fed Refrains From Stimulus

By Jonathan Burgos and Yoshiaki Nohara - Dec 14, 2011 7:24 AM GMT+0700

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Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Cali Carlin reports on the performance of the U.S. equity market today. Stocks fell, while the dollar and Treasuries rallied, as the Federal Reserve refrained from taking more steps to stimulate the economy and concern grew that European leaders won’t agree on ways to expand the region’s bailout capacities. Gold slumped to a seven-week low. Bloomberg's Pimm Fox also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)

Asian stocks (MXAP) dropped for a second day as the Federal Reserve refrained from taking new measures to spur growth and U.S. retail sales rose at the slowest pace in five months, clouding the earnings outlook for Asian exporters.

Sony Corp. (6758), which generates 20 percent of its sales in the U.S., fell 1.5 percent in Tokyo. Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea’s biggest exporter of consumer electronics, declined 1.9 percent in Seoul. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest mining company, dropped 1.3 percent in Sydney after metal prices fell.

“Nothing came out of the Fed meeting,” said Shintaro Takeuchi, portfolio investment group manager at Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. that manages $111 billion in assets. “That’s negative for stocks.”

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.6 percent to 113.64 as of 9:18 a.m. in Tokyo, with about three shares fell for each that rose in the measure. The gauge dropped 2.2 percent last week after Standard & Poor’s said it may cut credit ratings for Germany, France and 13 other euro-zone countries.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net; Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.