World Markets: Asian shares ease
Pressured by further losses on Wall Street, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.2 percent, after sliding 1.3 percent on Thursday for its biggest one-day percentage drop in two months.
South Korean shares led the declines with a 0.7 percent drop, with blue-chips mostly down, while Shanghai shares were nearly flat.
Global stocks fell overnight on worries about Washington's ability to resolve the fiscal cliff in a timely manner before nearly $600 billion worth of spending cuts and tax increases kicks in early 2013 unless a compromise is reached to cut the deficit. There is also the issue of a debt ceiling, which needs to be raised to avoid a government shutdown.
A recession in the United States, which had recently defied a general trend in other parts of the world by showing signs of a modest recovery, could drag the global economy down further.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped for a second day and closed below its 200- day moving average for the first time in five months on Thursday, signalling a weaker trend. It closed down more than 1 percent at its lowest since Aug. 2.
Against the general bearish sentiment, China reports several pieces of data
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