Asian Stocks Trading Lower

By Jeremiah Marquez

HONG KONG -- Asian stock markets fell Monday, with benchmarks in Hong Kong and South Korea off about 2%, as a jump in U.S. unemployment intensified concerns the global economy is facing a prolonged slump.

Investors were rattled by a much-anticipated report released Friday that showed the unemployment rate in the world's largest economy increased to a worse-than-expected 7.2% in December from 6.8% in November. Meanwhile, employers cut 524,000 jobs, bringing job losses for all of 2008 to 2.6 million -- the most since 1945.

While hardly surprising, the figures were still more evidence that the magnitude and duration of the global recession could be worse than many anticipated. For Asia, the news was especially unsettling as rising unemployment hurts consumer spending and erodes demand for the region's major exports. ...