* Yen falls back on intervention talk
* World stocks fall for 5th straight day
By Brian Gorman
LONDON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - World stocks fell for a fifth day
on Wednesday as worries about a double dip recession persisted,
while the yen eased from a 15-year high on speculation that
Tokyo was considering intervening to weaken its currency.
A one-notch downgrade of Ireland's credit rating by Standard
& Poor's sent a reminder of the problems that euro zone
peripheral economies face in managing their debt.
The cut overshadowed a better than expected German business
morale reading for August from the Ifo think tank.
World equities measured by the MSCI All-Country World Index
<.MIWD000000PUS> dropped 0.5 percent, down for a fifth straight
session, and the Thomson Reuters euro zone peripheral index
<.TRXFLDPIPU> lost 0.8 percent.
"The Ireland downgrade was not too much of a surprise but it
is still weighing on sentiment," said Joshua Raymond, market
strategist at City Index in London.
"There is a big focus on economic data now that we've come
through the earnings season. People are expecting very slow
growth at the minimum but there is still a potential for a
double dip."
U.S. stock index futures <DJc1> <SPc1> were down about 0.1
percent ahead of durable goods and oil inventory reports due
later in the day.
Traders also awaited data on sales of U.S. new homes,
following a sharp decline in existing homes sales reported on
Tuesday, which hit equity markets.
Nikkei business daily reported Japan's Ministry of Finance
may consider unilateral yen-selling market intervention if
speculators drive up the currency. The dollar has lost nearly 9
percent against the yen this year. []
Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda reinforced that view,
telling reporters that recent yen moves were one-sided and Tokyo
will respond appropriately when necessary. []
Some said it was unlikely the Japanese would intervene at
current levels.
"I think it's unlikely there would be intervention much
above 80 yen," said Ray Farris, chief currency strategist at
Credit Suisse in London. "... The yen is not overvalued by our
estimates."
The dollar was up 0.4 percent at 84.56 yen <JPY=>, and up
0.2 percent against a basket of currencies <.DXY>.
The yen also fell from a nine-year peak against the euro.
Tokyo's Nikkei average <> had lost 1.7 percent to hit a
16-month closing low on disappointment over the lack of policy
action by the authorities to rein in the strong yen, which
threatens Japan's fragile economic recovery.
Illustrating concerns over global growth, miner BHP Billiton
<BLT.L> <BHP.AX> said it was cautious on the short-term outlook
and that the economy in China, its biggest customer, would slow
from recent highs. []
The FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of leading European
shares was down 0.5 percent, having been in positive territory
earlier after the Ifo data, which also boosted the euro.
[]
IRISH DEBT PRESSURED
The cost of protecting Irish government bond from default
rose, with the five-year credit default swaps up 8 basis points
(bps) to 315 bps.
The 10-year Irish/German government bond yield spread
<IE10YT=TWEB> <DE10YT=TWEB> widened by 12 bps to 342 bps.
Yields on benchmark 10-year German Bunds were down 3 bps at
2.164 percent, while those on 10-year U.S. Treasuries
<US10YT=RR> were flat at 2.4932 percent.
Crude oil prices <CLc1> edged up from a seven-week low but
were still below $72, with copper <MCU3> 0.2 percent lower.
Gold gained 0.5 percent, and earlier hit an eight-week high.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Plumberg in Hong Kong, Neal
Armstrong, Dominic Lau and Ian Chua in London, editing by John
Stonestreet)
