Stock Indexes Fall After Economic Growth, U.S. Retail Sales Miss Estimates

Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Mark Matthews, a strategist at Macquarie Capital Securities in Hong Kong, talks about his investment strategy for Asian stocks. Most Asian stocks fell, led by electronics and finance companies, after Japan’s economy expanded at the slowest pace in three quarters and Hong Kong announced measures to cool home prices. Matthews talks with Bloomberg's Mark Barton on "Global Connection." (Source: Bloomberg)

Japanese stocks fell, sending the Nikkei 225 Stock Average to a six-week low, after economic growth missed estimates and U.S. retail sales increased less than expected.

Sony Corp., an electronics maker that gets 22 percent of sales in the U.S., sank 3 percent. Honda Motor Co., a carmaker that generates more than 80 percent of its revenue abroad, retreated 0.9 percent. JX Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest oil refiner and copper producer, dropped 3.2 percent as crude oil and metal prices slumped on Aug. 13.

“The Japanese economy is simply weak,” said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist in Tokyo at Daiwa Asset Management Co., which oversees about $104 billion. “We need to see some sort of catalyst to help investor sentiment recover, especially a good economic indicator from the U.S.”

The Nikkei fell 0.6 percent to 9,196.67 at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo, the biggest drop among equity benchmarks in the Asia- Pacific region. The broader Topix index lost 0.3 percent to 828.63, with almost twice as many stocks declining as advancing.

The Nikkei has dropped 13 percent in 2010, the biggest slump among the world’s five-largest developed markets, as the yen near a 15-year high against the dollar threatens to crimp export earnings. Europe’s debt crisis, China’s measures to cool its property market and concern about the pace of U.S. economic expansion have also dented confidence in a global recovery.

The declines have cut the average price of stocks in the Nikkei to 16.5 times estimated earnings, the cheapest since December 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.