HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asia stocks slid on Friday after a warning from General Motors' (GM.N) that it may need to file for bankruptcy drove Wall Street shares to 12-year lows and highlighted the severe troubles of major U.S. companies and banks.
But most Asian equity markets held up better than their counterparts in the United States and Europe, thanks partly to hopes that China will boost its planned $585 billion in stimulus spending to help offset the damage from collapsing exports.
China's central bank chief, Zhou Xiaochuan, said on Friday that he sees signs of the economy recovering and officials would err on the side of acting sooner rather than later to revive growth in the world's third largest economy.
The dollar retreated and oil prices climbed in a slight reversal of Thursday's moves sparked by the stock market slide, while Japan's stock market woes pushed investors into safe-haven government bonds.
The data follows the European Central Bank and Bank of England chopping interest rates to record lows on Thursday. The BoE went a step further, saying it will print money to buy 75 billion pounds worth of government bonds as central banks try to limit the damage from the financial crisis and sharpest recession in decades.
But Merrill Lynch analysts said in a research note that there were several signs that Asia's economies were starting to stabilize, including a recovery in Chinese manufacturing and Korean exports to China.
Highlighting the see-saw nature of Asia markets, the South Korean won -- the most battered of regional currencies -- recovered to post slight gains on the day after initially falling to an 11-year low. more...
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