TOKYO: Tokyo stocks were down 1.70pc after the first five minutes of trade Wednesday following an overnight plunge on Wall Street as weak US economic data overshadowed a deal to raise the debt limit and avoid default.
They had opened 1.42pc lower, with the benchmark Nikkei-225 index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange down 139.57 points at 9,705.02.
"Concerns about a US economic slowdown are increasing while worries continue over a possible downgrade in the US credit rating over the degree of deficit reduction," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities.
US President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that raises the nation's debt ceiling and cuts the budget deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over the next decade.
In New York on Tuesday US stocks wiped out most of their gains for 2011, plunging as poor economic data overshadowed the debt-ceiling deal.
It was the eighth straight day of losses on US markets, their longest losing streak since October 2008, and saw the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices close below the points at which they started the year, while the Dow was at its lowest since mid-March.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 265.87 points (2.19 percent) at 11,866.77 and the broader S&P 500 dropped 32.89 points (2.56 percent) to 1,254.05.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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