Asian markets dragged down by Wall Street sell-off

05/12/2011 11:24
ASIA

Negative indices caused by the fall of prices in oil, silver and gold. The dollar gains on the euro because of crisis in Greece.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews / Agencies) - All Asian stock markets are down today, after yesterday’s sell-off on Wall Street, caused by falling commodity prices, especially oil, silver and gold.

Yesterday the price of oil on the New York Stock Exchange fell by 5.5%, silver fell by 8, 3% and gold 0.9%. Today at noon the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell by 0.79%,  Shanghai by 0.36%, Hong Kong by 0.83%, Seoul was down by 1.13.

The price of oil has fallen mainly because data was published showing an increase in U.S. reserves. China and the U.S. are the two largest energy consumers. On the other hand, the dollar strengthened slightly against the euro, due to the problems of Greece’s’ defaulting on its debt. Two days ago the euro was trading at 1. 4410 against the dollar. Last night, its value was 1.4215.