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ASIA MARKETS
Asian stocks may fall on heightening credit crunch
By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:15 PM ET Aug 20, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Asian stocks are expected to open mostly lower Tuesday on increasing credit crunch concerns after Capital One Financial Corp., one of the top U.S. credit-card issuers, said it will shut down its mortgage arm.
"It's just another mortgage provider that lost its credit lines," said Ken Kam, Chairman and CEO of Marketocracy Data Services, which tracks and analyzes worldwide trading activities. "This will add pressure to credit markets."
September futures for the Nikkei 225 Index (JP:1804610: news, chart, profile) last traded at 15,795 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, up from Monday's close of 15,730 on the Osaka Stock Exchange, but down from the close of 15,835 on the Singapore Exchange.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index was up in Tuesday's early-morning trading.
Capital One said after markets closed in the U.S. that it was shuttering its wholesale mortgage unit and cutting 1,900 jobs. Shares of Capital One dropped 5% in after-hours trading. Read more
On Wall Street, stocks emerged from earlier losses on growing speculation the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates further. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.3% at 13,121.35. The S&P 500 was off 0.39 points at 1,445.55, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index edged 3.56 points higher to close at 2,508.59. Stock markets in Asian and Europe rallied on Monday after the Fed cut its discount rate by 0.5% to 5.75% last Friday.
"The Fed rate cut should help calm the credit markets," wrote Citigroup analyst Markus Rosgen in a research note. "But it is highly unlikely to bring back the days of momentum."
The Bank of New York Asia ADR Index, the benchmark measure gauging American Depositary Receipts of Asian companies, lost 0.2% to 151.88 on Monday. The Japan ADR Index was down 0.9%.
More credit woes
Major banking stocks traded in the U.S. were down on Monday. J.P. Morgan Chase fell 1.1%, and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. was off 1.5%. American Express Co. fell 0.4%.
ADRs of Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's largest financial group, declined 2% after the Financial Times reported it has tapped the discount window opened by the Fed.
Thornburg Mortgage Inc., a residential-mortgage lender focused on jumbo adjustable-rate loans, said Monday it sold a "substantial" part of its triple-A-rated mortgage securities portfolio. It also said it will report a third-quarter capital loss of about $930 million as a result of the mortgage-securities sales. Thornburg's stock declined 10.2%.
Commodity risk management company FCStone Group Inc. on Monday said it anticipates a $3.5 million charge after losing 25% of its investment with Sentinel Management Group, which filed for bankruptcy on Friday. See full story.
Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp. fell 7.6% after slumping 31% last week. The largest mortgage lender in the U.S. has started laying off workers involved in originating loans as part of an effort to weather the credit turmoil, The Wall Street Journal reported.
H Shares
China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Monday announced it would allow individual investors to directly trade in Hong Kong-listed securities of Chinese companies, or H shares.
The move "could be a major step in China's exchange control liberalization, and give a strong boost to H shares", wrote Joe Lo, an analyst at Citigroup, in a research note.
Opening Hong Kong to Chinese investors "will help narrow the price gap between the Hong Kong-listed H shares and the mainland-listed A shares," said Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., the operator of Hong Kong's stock market, in a statement.
China property
Recent turmoil in global stock markets has made China property stocks more attractive, said Citigroup analyst Tony Tsang
"We don't see a bear market taking place in the economy and the physical property market in mainland China, which remain strong despite the recent weakness in the U.S.," Tsang wrote in a research note released Monday.
Tsang recommended five Chinese property stocks, including Shimao Property, Yanlord, Shenzhen Investment, New World China Land, and SPG Land.
Monday's markets
The Dow Jones Asia/Pacific Index closed up 5.36 points at 147.42. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index ended up 3% at 15,732.48. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 6%.
Crude oil for September delivery fell 86 cents to close at $71.12 a barrel in New York. Natural gas for September delivery finished with a loss of 97 cents, at $6.04 per million British thermal units. See full story.
Gold futures for December delivery ended down 30 cents to close at $666.50 an ounce. See full story.
The dollar was slightly up against the yen and slightly down against the euro as investors took a wait-and-see attitude to the credit-market crunch. See currencies. End of Story
Moming Zhou is a MarketWatch reporter, based in San Francisco.

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MozHawk