Europe concerns continue to weigh on Asian markets gold still falling

With news out of Europe continuing to weigh on global markets, Asian stocks opened mixed today.

In Australia, the ASX200 Index was trading around 1.4% lower half an hour into trade. Retail stocks continued to take a hammering, the latest to disappoint was Billabong International – a lifestyle brand mostly in surfwear with exposure across the globe. The stock fell as much as 30% after it reported a much lower than expected earnings number, with the market expecting growth for 2012.

Other industrial stocks in Australia could be victims of similar market downgrades when reporting season commences in February.

The Australian dollar was last trading back below parity against the US dollar at around 0.9963. The EUR/USD managed to hold on to its gains in the Asian morning session, last at around 1.3034 but it still looks vulnerable with more bad news coming out of the Eurozone over the weekend.

The Japanese Yen also strengthened against the dollar with the JPY/USD last below 77.85. Commodities remain in a tight trading range with gold last at US$1602/oz while the bounce was strong from last week’s so, it’s still not convincingly enough to break the recent downward trend.

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