Asian Stocks Swing on Slower U.S. Services Growth, Yen

Asian stocks swung between gains and losses as a report showed U.S. service industries expanded less than expected and the yen fell.

Mazda Motor Corp., an automaker that gets 30 percent of its sales in North America, gained 0.8 percent, reversing losses of 1.5 percent, as the yen weakened. Samsung Electronics Co. slipped 0.2 percent as South Korea’s biggest exporter of consumer electronics posted fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates. SoftBank Corp. added 0.5 percent after the price target of the Japanese mobile phone operator was raised at Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.1 percent to 139.12 as of 9:58 a.m. in Tokyo after rising as much as 0.2 percent. Japan’s Topix index slipped 0.2 percent after the yen fell 0.2 percent versus the dollar. Janet Yellen won U.S. Senate confirmation to become the 15th chairman of the Federal Reserve and the first woman to head the central bank in its 100-year history.

The U.S. Labor Department will release the unemployment rate and new hiring figures for last month on Jan. 10. The Federal Open Market Committee said last month it plans to taper monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion starting January, saying in a statement that “labor-market conditions have shown further improvement.” The committee is scheduled to meet Jan. 28-29.

(Source: Bloomberg)