Asian Markets are set for another day without a lot of direction from New York this morning, U.S. stocks fell in overnight trading but were off session lows after weak employment and durable goods data added to recent worries about the strength of the economic recovery and market dived in early trading.

Wall Street rating agencies said they might downgrade Greece’s sovereign debt rating, refocusing attention on some euro-zone countries’ weak fiscal health, an issue that has filled the media and impacted market without any sound reason of late.

Industrial and financial shares dragged the most on the S&P 500, with heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc (CAT) off 1 percent at $56.38, and JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM) down 1.4 percent at $40.05.

The government said durable goods orders, which gauge demand for a wide range of long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods, unexpectedly fell in January, while the number of workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose to 496,000 last week.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI lost 74.44 points, or 0.72 percent, to 10,299.72. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX dropped 5.77 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,099.47. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC fell 10.13 points, or 0.45 percent, to 2,225.77.

A sharp retracement in stocks coincided with rumors Apple Inc (AAPL.O) could be planning a 4-for-1 stock split. The company said no stock split announcement had been made. Apple shares, which had fallen as low intraday as $196.89, were trading at $200.56.

Coca-Cola Co (KO) contributed the most to the Dow’s slide after it said it will acquire the North American bottling businesses of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc (CCE) for about $13 billion. Coke shares fell 4 percent to $52.98, while CCE soared 32 percent to $25.32.

Chevron Corp (CVX) shed 0.8 percent to $71.77 as crude oil prices settled down 2.3 percent, pressured by concerns about the economy.

Health insurance stocks were in focus as U.S. President Barack Obama opened a healthcare reform summit in Washington. The Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index .HMO fell 0.4 percent.

Moody’s said a change in Greece’s rating would depend on whether Athens could smoothly enact a fiscal reform plan, while Standard & Poor’s said a downgrade by one or two notches in the next month was possible. The move could increase borrowing costs and exacerbate Greece’s problems.

On his second day of congressional testimony, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said U.S. regulators are looking into how Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs (GS) helped Greece arrange derivatives deals that critics say were used to disguise the size of its budget deficits.

Thursday’s U.S. economic data came on top of disappointing data on consumer sentiment and home prices and sales earlier this week.

Mining shares in Australia are set for a lower open.

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Feb 25th, 2010and filed underAsia, Latest News, Markets.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site