Australia Stocks, Japan Futures Slump on Commodities, Currency

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Australia shares and Japan’s stock futures slid as falling commodity prices pointed to a deeper global recession, overshadowing Europe’s biggest interest-rate cut in a decade.

“What’s behind the slump in oil is a global economic slowdown and subsequent dwindling demand,” Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist at Tokyo-based Daiwa Asset Management Co., which manages about $96 billion, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Oil has retreated 70 percent from a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11 as expectations evaporated that demand in emerging markets would persist as developed economies slowed. Merrill Commodity Strategist Francisco Blanch yesterday said oil may slide below $25 a barrel next year if the global recession spills over into China.