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Asian markets were off sharply.

The Nikkei was down 1.1% to 16,777. Bridgestone was down 1.1% to 2660. Canon was down .6% to 6680. Daiwa Securities was down 1.6% to 1317. Fuji Film was down 1.2% to 4860. Hitachi was down .8% to 712. Honda was down .9% to 4320. Japan Tobacco was down 5.7% to 534000. NEC was down 2.3% to 559. NTT was down 1% to 594000. Sharp was down 1.4% to 2055. Softbank was down 3.5% to 2440. Sony was down 1.8% to 5060. Toshiba was was down .5% to 776. Toyota was down .5% to 7450. Yahoo Japan was down 4.7% to 49000.

The Hang Seng was down 1.2% to 18,965. Cathay Pacific was down 2.2% to 18.56. China Mobile was down 2.3% to 61.7. China Netcom was down 2.9% to 18.26. HSBC was down .4% to 141.2. PCCW was down 1% to 4.73.

The KOSPI was down .4% to 1,428.

The Straits Times was down 2.2% to 2,897.

The Shanghai Composite was up 1.4% to 2,364.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre