the debt crisis taking its toll on currencies. japanese yen 77 and a bit of change, andrew. speaking is of japan, that s one thing the japanese don t want to see is the weaker euro. the euro zone, such a key market for japanese companies. this is how the weekended here in asia today. chinese stocks pummeled in the longest losing streak now for years. europe s troubles continuing to discourage investors. investors ignoring the fall in the u.s. jobless claims which we got yesterday. instead they re focusing on the disappointing news, the white house is not considering a rumored trillion dollar mortgage refinancing scheme. we have rising french italian bond yields all adding to the gloom. banking stocks not surpriselily, leading the hang seng down, down by more than 1%. there was one bright spot, one sector outperforming today, chinese energy stocks having
india, ford s allen moulally. caution has crept in before the week is out. european markets are marginally out, asian markets are marginally down. futures are flat. the predicted number of new jobs is around about 150,000. many say that is better but charles still not good enough. no. i think that s very much going to be what is dominating investor thought really all way around the globe. we are seeing this slight rebound here in europe. there was a bit of a sell-off, i think perhaps in anticipation of a strong nonfarm payroll. maybe as many as 90,000 jobs being created. that s the whisper number on wall street. as that number goes down to more than 150,000, which seems to be the consensus, there s less prospect of u.s. interest rates being moved up soon and perhaps there s pressure on the euro. there is a lot of worry out here behind all of this. we re still worrying about banks. .only credit rights issue a couple of days ago is still being talked about in the markets be