Asian markets were fairly flat.

The Nikkei was flat at 17,292. Bridgestone was down .6% to 2430. Canon was up .8% to 6170. Fuji Film was up 3% to 5150. Hitachi was up 1.1% to 814. Honda was up 1.7% to 4710. NEC was up 2% to 598. NTT was up 1.6% to 664000. Sharp was down .2% to 2115. Softbank was down 1.1% to 2820. Sony was flat at 5840. Toshiba was down .2% to 728. Toyota was up .1% to 8000. Yahoo Japan was up 1.2% to 43700.

The Hang Seng was up .3% to 20,735. Cathay Pacific was up .5% to 21.75. China Mobile was up 2.1% to 77.05. China Netcom was up .3% to 19.82. China Unicom was up 3.2% to 10.46. HSBC was down 2% to 140.6. PCCW was down .4% to 4.69.

The KOSPI was down .2% to 1,424.

The Straits Times was down .7% to 3,213.

The Shanghai Composite was up .8% to 2,738.

Data from Reuters.

Douglas A. McIntyre