Asian market preview 03/03/2008

US markets extended their monthly loss last week after ending the week lower, marking a 4 straight month of declines. Weak economic data such as estimation of increased losses at banks and speculation that rising unemployment and lower manufacturing are pushing the economy into recession. These concerns have made investors extremely nervous towards the end of last week after rising for the first 3 days of the week. AIG retreated the most on Friday after reporting its biggest loss due to writedowns from subprime-mortgage market's collapse. UBS mentioned that bank losses may reach $600 billion. Dow lost 315.79 pts or 2.51% on Friday to 12266.39, S&P500 fell 37.05 pts or 2.71% to 1330.63 while Nasdaq shed 60.09 pts or 2.58% to 2271.48.

Asian markets may open lower following the US markets' tumbled on Friday and after oil reached its new intraday high at $103.05 per barrel. The worrying economic conditions may push the asian markets further lower today and without positive news from each countries, markets in the Asian region may fall quite deep in the 1st trading day of the week. Crude oil was traded recently around $101.80ish per barrel, gold was traded around $973.70ish and JPY traded around 103.30ish. Nikkei was closed at 13290 in CME, lower than the close of 13450 here on Friday.

The Kospi may open lower around 213ish and may fall further if foreign investors decided to take off from the Korean market and wait for better times to get into position again. With weak to no growth in US' economy, it is possible that Asian markets may get a certain level of impact although, asian markets are proved to be strong enough to withstand US' economic recession.

Hangseng may open lower around 23800ish following Friday's US markets tumble and may even fall lower to below 23500ish should investors decided to run away now and get in later on. Energy companies may fall too with oil falling a bit and exporters may be hurt with the weaker US$ worldwide. Markets volatilities may still be high in these uncertain times and that could help us daytraders in getting our profit.