Asian markets tumble; Nikkei falls 10 percent

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http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081016/world_markets.html

Asian stocks plummeted Thursday, with Tokyo's market plunging more than 10 percent, after another dive on Wall Street as worse-than-expected data about the U.S. economy heightened fears of a global recession.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average slid 911 points, or 9.6 percent, to 8,635.56, after earlier falling as much as 10.3 percent. Hong Kong's key index lost 963.65 points, or 6 percent, to 15,034.65.

South Korea's Kospi was down 7.2 percent, Australia's benchmark was off 6.3 percent and Singapore's index lost about 6 percent.

Investors were unnerved by U.S. data showing the country's retail sales fell 1.2 percent in September, almost double the 0.7 percent decline analysts expected. Other readings, released by the U.S. Federal Reserve, indicated the economy continued to slow in the early fall as financial and credit market problems took a turn for the worse.

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