Asian Stocks Fall, Extending Global Rout; Toyota, Nintendo Drop

Asian stocks fell, extending a global rout, as U.S. consumer prices dropped by a record and Japan's exports declined the most in six years, adding to evidence a global recession is deepening.

``Concerns are rising that the U.S. is entering a period of deflation and that the economic picture is getting bleaker,'' Juichi Wako, a Tokyo-based strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``There's really no good news to hang on to today.''

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 2.2 percent to 77.46 at 9:38 a.m. in Tokyo, dropping for a fourth day and heading for a 6.7 percent decline this week. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 4 percent to 7,939.67, while stocks also slumped in Australia and South Korea.