Asia shares fall as economy gloom hits techs, miners

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Wednesday, led by losses in technology and materials stocks after brokerage downgrades for top chip maker Intel Corp and a warning from global miner Rio Tinto about the uncertain near-term outlook.

Global equities and the euro had fallen on Tuesday, knocked by gloomy forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, which said the world economic slowdown was worsening, and pessimism about the U.S. corporate earnings outlook.

The safe-haven dollar rose on Wednesday as the euro zone's festering debt crisis put the single currency under renewed pressure. Spanish bond yields climbed on Tuesday as Madrid kept markets guessing over whether it will request an international bailout.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.4 percent, with the materials <.miapjmt00pus> and tech <.miapjit00pus> sub-indexes both shedding more than 0.5 percent.

Japan's Nikkei share average <.n225> fell 1.3 percent. <.t/>

U.S. stocks <.spx> fell around 1 percent on Tuesday. Shares of Intel, the world's largest semiconductor maker, lost 2.7 percent after negative reports from at least two brokerages. <.n/>

Equity markets have broadly been rallying since hitting a nadir for the year in early June, supported by a fresh round of stimulus measures rolled out by major central banks last month to bolster fragile economies.

But caution has set in as the corporate third quarter results season gets under way, with S&P 500 earnings forecast to have fallen 2.4 percent from the year-earlier period, the first decline in three years, according to Thomson Reuters data.

"History is not on the side of those who expect the market to continue to prosper once the earnings cycle has turned," said John Higgins, senior markets economist at Capital Economics, in a note.

Reinforcing nervousness about the state of the global economy, Rio Tinto Chief Executive Tom Albanese said on Tuesday the company would step up cost cuts because of an uncertain near-term outlook that includes lower growth this year in China, the world's largest consumer of key commodities.

Copper and gold prices were steady on Wednesday but oil fell, with Brent crude losing 50 cents to $114 a barrel and U.S. crude falling around 0.6 percent to below $92.

The euro fell 0.1 percent to around $1.2865, while the dollar rose by a similar percentage against a basket of major currencies <.dxy>.

(Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-shares-fall-economy-gloom-hits-techs-miners-005753203--sector.html

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