As Australia's Leading economic index data hit, printing 0.0% for its lowest level in 13 months, AUDJPY fell out of bed with a thump and snapped carry-trades that were holding Asian stocks near unch early on. The Nikkei 225 fell over 250 points from its post-US close highs. The Aussie data combined with news that Fukushima was being raised to a Level 3 'incident' is escalating the JPY move (and dragging Nikkei -11.5% from its 7/18 dead-cat-bounce highs). Asian FX is fading once again (though KRW and TWD are modestly bid) led by IDR and THB. The Indonesian currency has devalued almost 7% in the last 4 days and dropped by its most since Lehman tonight - even as the JCI is modestly higher Chinese stocks are siding fast led by Everbright which has now fallen 17% since it re-opened for trading yesterday. S&P futures are -3 from the US close (down over 9 points from the intraday highs) and Treasury futures have rallied back to unch from a modest dip earlier in the Asian session.
for a sense of the carnage in Asia the last few days... here is the Indonesian Rupiah which is suffering its biggest drop since Lehman (and the JCI is down by its most in 3-days since lehman - over 10% - but bouncing a little tonight)
Charts: Bloomberg