* European, Asian stocks fall on anaemic global recovery
* Euro hits six-week low vs dlr, nine-year trough vs yen
* German 10-, 30-year government bond yields at record lows
By Emelia Sithole-Matarise
LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - World stocks fell on Tuesday as
investors fretting about an anaemic global recovery dumped risky
assets and fled into government debt and other safe-haven assets
including the yen, which hit a 15-year high against the dollar.
Recent data, particularly from the United States, has
suggested the global upturn is faltering despite the extension
of accommodative policy measures in many countries.
Comments from a Bank of England policymaker that the UK
risked sliding back into recession added to broader risk
aversion, driving 10-year British government bond yields near
record lows and 30-year German Bund yields to all-time troughs
as investors sought refuge in government debt. Bond yields move
inversely to prices.
Major European shares <> shed more than 1 percent, and
S&P 500 futures <SPc1> were down 0.7 percent by 1016 GMT,
pointing to a lower start on Wall Street.
"The market is looking for any sign of weakness... There's
so much bearishness around the U.S. economy at the moment and
that's casting a pall over equity markets and helping government
bonds," said Nick Stamenkovic, strategist at RIA Capital Markets
Japan's Nikkei average <> fell 1.3 percent, dipping
below the closely watched 9,000 mark for the first time in 15
months, pressured by selling from hedge funds and foreigners.
The MSCI world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> fell 0.7 percent
to retest one-month lows. The Thomson Reuters global stock index
<.TRXFLDGLPU> was 0.6 percent lower.
The Nikkei index has shed nearly 15 percent so far this
year, compared to a 2.6 percent fall in the MSCI Asia ex-Japan
index. The 9,000-9,100 range had been strong support for the
benchmark Nikkei since last year.
BUOYANT YEN
The retreat in equities buoyed the yen to a fresh 15-year
high against the dollar and a nine-year peak against the euro
after Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda again resisted
market pressure to comment on currency intervention.
Noda said recent currency moves were clearly one-sided and
that disorderly moves could be harmful to the stability of the
economy and the financial system. []
The dollar <JPY=> fell as low as 84.34 yen on trading
platform EBS, a fall of around 0.7 percent on the day, while the
euro <EURJPY=R> dropped more than one percent to around 106.35
yen.
The dollar was last traded 0.8 percent down versus the yen
at 84.39 and the euro 1.14 percent weaker at 106.43.
"Unless the Japanese step in with something more definitive,
we will see speculative accounts drive the dollar/yen down to 80
yen," said Paul Robson, RBS Global Banking currency strategist.
"The 85 yen level was pretty important and now with that
gone, dollar/yen falling to 80 is a real possibility. That will
hurt the Japanese economy pretty hard, unless they do something
more on the fiscal side or resort to more quantitative easing."
Against the dollar, the euro fell to a six-week low of
$1.2614 on EBS.
The scramble for less risky assets sent the 10-year and
30-year German Bund yields <DE10YT=TWEB> <DE30YT=TWEB> down more
than 4 bps on the day to record lows at 2.214 percent and 2.871
percent respectively.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields were down five bps on
the day at 2.546 percent <US10YT=RR>, hovering near 17-month
lows close to 2.53 percent struck last Friday.
Gold prices slipped to their lowest in almost a week as
falling equities prompted investors to sell bullion to cover
losses, while a firmer dollar also put pressure on gold.
Spot gold <XAU=> was bid at $1,217 an ounce by 1042 GMT,
against $1,223.40 late in New York on Monday.
Crude oil <CLc1> lost almost a dollar to $72.18 a barrel, a
seven-week low, as doubts about the ability of top oil consumer
the United States to work through record stocks weighed on
sentiment.
(Additional reporting by William James and Anirban Nag;
editing by John Stonestreet)
