Asian Markets Dive on US Fears

Stocks plummeted across Asia today, sustaining the biggest losses in more than two months after concerns that Citigroup might be short of cash rattled investors. Mitsubishi UFJ, the largest bank in Japan, dropped 6% as the Nikkei fell to 16,517.48, a 2.1% fall. Financial shares led the declines as Asian banks worry that subprime woes will continue to undermine earnings.

After yesterday's precipitous decline in New York, stocks in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and elsewhere in Asia all found themselves in trouble. Financials in Australia also took a hit, with the country's largest investment bank dropping 3.2% yesterday. "We're seeing real potential for the world's largest economy to slow significantly and that affects everyone," a Sydney trader told Bloomberg. (More Asian markets stories.)