* Euro may test crucial level of $1.25
* Asian stocks fall, investors take profits amid
uncertainty
* Japan stocks hit by earnings, worries over firm yen
* Nagging investor doubts over euro debt plan
(Repeats to more subscribers)
By Koh Gui Qing
SYDNEY, May 14 (Reuters) - The beleaguered euro was
hovering just above a major price support level of $1.25 on
Friday as worries about Europe's debt problems plagued markets,
pressuring Asian stocks and supporting gold near record highs.
Doubts that troubled European nations can overhaul their
poor public finances, and fears that the region's ailing growth
would suffer even if austerity measures were successful, kept
the euro under pressure just above its 14-month low of $1.2510.
"Love for the euro is almost non-existent at the moment,"
said Adam Carr, an economist at ICAP in Sydney. "I don't know
if there is a near-term catalyst to change the euro's
fortunes."
In early Asian trade, the euro was trading at $1.2537
<EUR=>, little changed from levels seen in New York.
But some traders said it may drop further if it breaches
$1.25 as stop loss sell orders kick in from those investors who
had bet on a bounce and want to limit losses.
In one of many signs of lingering anxiety in the market,
Asian equity investors seemed keen to take profits on Friday, a
day after stocks had bounced on pledges from governments in
Spain and Portugal to tighten their fiscal belts.
The MSCI index for Asian stocks outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> dropped 0.65 percent. The index is down close
to 3 percent this year.
Japan's Nikkei average <> lost 1.6 percent, dragged
down by a tumble in electronics giant Sony Corp <6758.T> after
it forecast profits that were not as strong as some had hoped.
Sony shares shed 6.7 percent to 2,954 yen. It had forecast
an annual operating profit of 160 billion yen ($1.7 billion),
up fivefold from a year earlier, but far short of the 209
billion yen profit some had expected. []
Losses in Japanese stocks were further fuelled by worries
that a firm yen would eat into exporters' earnings power.
Investors typically buy the yen in uncertain times as a
safe-haven.
The shares in some big exporter names fell more sharply
than the Nikkei average. Camera maker Canon Inc <7751.T> slid
2.2 percent, chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron Ltd <8035.T>
fell 2.8 percent and Honda Motor Co <7267.T> dropped 2.7
percent.
Oil <CLc1> was down 0.6 percent at $73.98, hurt by caution
over Europe's debt problems.
Gold <XAU=>, which hit a record high of $1,248.15 an ounce
on Wednesday as investors sought a safe haven from the
uncertainties of the European debt crisis, was changing hands
on Friday at $1,235.90.
(Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in SYDNEY; Editing by
Neil Fullick)
