Asia booms, markets plunge

Asia is booming. Bloomberg reports:

Asia’s growth is accelerating as companies ship more cars, computers and commodities overseas, highlighting the role of exports in the region’s recovery and the risk of a slowdown should Europe’s debt crisis worsen.

Trade accounted for more than half the 4.9 percent annualized growth in Japan’s gross domestic product in the first quarter. Taiwan’s economy grew 13.3 percent from a year earlier, the fastest in three decades, and Singapore expanded at a 38.6 percent annualized rate, reports showed yesterday.

But the boom may not last much longer if Europe's troubles continue.

... The recovery may slow as Europe’s debt woes hurt consumer and business confidence in advanced economies, and a weaker euro makes Asian goods more expensive.

And Thursday's data show that the economic recovery in the US may already be losing momentum. Again from Bloomberg:

The index of U.S. leading economic indicators unexpectedly declined in April, a sign the economic expansion may cool in the second half of the year.

The 0.1 percent decrease in the New York-based Conference Board’s measure of the outlook for three to six months marked the first drop in a year and followed a revised 1.3 percent gain in March. Other reports showed more Americans filed for jobless benefits and manufacturing in the Philadelphia region expanded.

But meanwhile, the decline in stocks appears to be gaining momentum. From Bloomberg on Thursday:

A weeklong rout in stocks deepened, with U.S. benchmark indexes losing the most in more than a year, as reports cast doubts about the strength of the economic recovery and European leaders struggled to contain the region’s debt crisis. Commodities plunged and Treasuries soared.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index plunged 3.9 percent to 1,071.59 at 4 p.m. in New York, its biggest drop since April 2009. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 2.2 percent and the S&P GSCI Index of commodities tumbled to the lowest since October. The losses accelerated even as the euro rallied as much as 1.5 percent to $1.2598 after earlier flirting with a four-year low. Ten-year Treasury yields sank to the lowest level of the year, down 15 basis points at 3.22 percent. The yen rallied against all 16 major counterparts.