Asian markets tumbled further today as poor US jobs data added to already weak sentiment caused by Spain’s banking crisis and political uncertainty in Greece.
Dealers were also digesting a string of manufacturing figures from Asia to the United States that pointed to a global economic slowdown.
Tokyo fell 2.00 per cent by the break, with electronics giant Sony the stand-out loser, as it fell below 1,000 yen for the first time since 1980.
Hong Kong shed 2.33 per cent, Shanghai was 1.24 per cent lower, Sydney skidded 1.84 per cent and Seoul lost 2.60 per cent.
Washington said on Friday that the economy added a meagre 69,000 jobs in May — the slowest rise for 12 months — while the unemployment rate rose for the first time in almost a year to 8.2 per cent.
The Labour Department also slashed its estimate of April job gains by 33 per cent to 77,000. The market has softened in recent months from an average gain of 226,000 in the first three months of the year.
The disappointing numbers came after the government said the world’s largest economy slowed from an annual growth rate of 3.0 per cent in the final quarter of 2011 to a 1.9 per cent pace in January-March, too weak a pace to dent unemployment.
They also compounded investor woes after purchasing manager indices for May from China, India, the Euro zone and the United States all came in lower, underlining the weak state of the global economy.
The Dow fell 2.22 per cent — leaving it in the red for the first time in 2012 — while the broad-based S&P 500 tumbled 2.46 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite sank 2.82 per cent.