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APAsian stock markets fell Monday after grim news about American consumers sowed more doubts about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery and sent Wall Street tumbling last week. Exacerbating investor worries was U.S. lender CIT Group's bankruptcy filing Sunday, which dragged financials sharply lower across the region.
Japan's key Nikkei 225 stock average led Asian declines, down 2.3 percent at 9,802.95. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 1.7 percent at 21,378.17, while Australia's S&P/ASX200 was down 2.2 percent. South Korea's market dropped 1.6 percent. Benchmarks in New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore also fell, though the region recovered some early losses on strength in mainland China. The Shanghai Composite index was the only major market in positive territory, up 2.1 percent.
On Friday, U.S. markets sold off after government figures for September showed personal spending fell 0.5 percent and personal income remained flat compared to the previous month. A drop in a key measure of consumer sentiment added to the day's troubling signs that U.S. consumers, whose voracious spending helped drive global growth before the crisis, were unlikely to resume their spendthrift ways anytime soon. More bad news followed Sunday with CIT filing for Chapter 11 protection after struggling for months to avert bankruptcy. It was one of the biggest filings in U.S. corporate history, following Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and General Motors.
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