Asian stocks fell on Monday, with slower growth than expected in the U.S. and uncertainty about a tentative agreement to resolve the debt crisis in Greece weighs on the minds of investors.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.7 percent to 8781.92. South Korea's Kospi was 0.7 percent, to 1951.23 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.5 percent to 10,394.33. Australia's S & P / ASX 200 lost 0.3 percent to 4274.70. Benchmarks in Singapore and the Philippines also fell.
Mainland China shares mixed after being closed for a week of Chinese New Year holiday.
Taiwan and New Zealand rose. European leaders will meet later on Monday in Brussels to discuss the austerity and belt-tightening measures and a tentative agreement reached Saturday between Greece and the private investors could avoid a disastrous Greek default on its debt.
If the offer is and works, which will help to avoid the risk of electric shock to the global banking system. But not resolve weakening economic conditions in Greece and other European nations, and to control spending to get your debt under control.
Stan Shamu at IG Markets in Melbourne, said that "Greece's debt problems will remain a source of uncertainty and could slow down the mood of risk before the EU summit today."
Under the agreement, investors with € 206 billion ($ 272 million) in bonds Greeks bonds in exchange for half their face value. Replacement bonds have a maturity longer and pay a lower interest rate.
The agreement would reduce annual interest expense of Greece approximately 10 million euros to around 4 million euros. When the bonds mature, Greece would have to pay its bondholders only 103 million euros.
It is unclear how investors who buy and sell bonds of other debt-ridden countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal, will react.
If you raise borrowing costs for countries, the debt crisis could be worse. Private investors hold two-thirds of Greece's debt, which amounts to an unsustainable 160 percent of its annual economic output.
By restructuring the debt, Greece expected to be a more manageable 120 percent by the end of the decade. On Wall Street, stocks mostly fell on Friday after the government said the U.S. economy grew more slowly than expected in the last three months of 2011.
Economic growth from October to December reached an annual rate of 2.8 percent. That was the fastest in 2011, but less than 3 percent that economists were looking for.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.6 percent to 12,660.46. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.2 percent to 1316.33. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.4 percent to 2816.55.
Benchmark oil for March delivery fell 36 cents to $ 99.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract fell 14 cents to close at $ 99.56 a barrel on the Nymex on Friday. In currencies, the euro fell to $ 1.3180 from $ 1.3208 late Friday in New York. The dollar rose slightly to 76.74 yen from 76.72 yen.
