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And U.S. stock futures also pointed to more selling when investors wake up in North America, with S&P 500 futures down 0.7 percent in Asian trade.
"Investors are just fleeing risk assets," said ATI Asset Management chief investment officer Simon Burge.
"Bond yields are at an all-time low. Even in the global financial crisis we didn't see bond yields at the levels that they have reached now ... This is a flight from risk assets that is unprecedented," Burge said.
The benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield fell below 0.80 percent to its lowest since July 2003. Ten-year JGB futures prices jumped to a 19-month high.
U.S. and German government bond yields had both hit record lows on Friday, with 10-year German yields dipping to 1.127 percent and 10-year Treasury yields touching a historic low of 1.442 percent.
"The jobs number from the U.S. was shocking and Spain is now becoming a big worry. On top of that everyone who thought Q1 would be the bottom for the Chinese economy has realized that this is a real slowdown that could go on," said Larry Jiang, Hong Kong-based chief investment strategist at Guotai Junan Securities.
The CBOE Volatility index , which measures expected volatility in the Standard & Poor's 500 index over the next 30 days, jumped nearly 11 percent to its highest since mid-December on Friday, reflecting mounting risk aversion.
POLICY RESPONSES EYED
Analysts said the flight to bonds would continue until clarity emerged on issues such as the outcome of Greek elections due on June 17 and the recapitalisation of European banks, now in the shadow of a Spanish banking crisis.
"It's not an issue of risk-on or risk-off anymore, it's nervousness all over until a clear direction emerges on a long-term trend," said Hisamitsu Hara, chief foreign exchange manager at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
U.S. jobs growth braked sharply for a third straight month in May and the jobless rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, with 69,000 jobs added to payrolls last month, the least since May last year.
The weak data followed poor Chinese manufacturing and dismal European data on factory activity, rattling markets that had already been on edge over the deepening euro-zone crisis. The numbers fuelled speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve would have to launch further monetary stimulus to shore up growth.
A Reuters poll of 15 primary dealers, which do business directly with the Fed, showed a 50 percent chance of a third round of quantitative easing.
The yen was off its Friday highs against the dollar and the euro. It stood at 78.13 yen to the U.S. dollar, off a 3-1/2 month high of 77.65 yen hit on Friday. It traded at 96.94 against the euro, having reached around 95.59 yen on Friday, its strongest level since December 2000.
The euro was at $1.2408, recovering from Friday's trough of $1.2288, its lowest in nearly two years. The Australian dollar, which is closely linked to risk appetite, staged only a meek recovery from eight-month lows hit on Friday.
"If the European situation worsens, then the global interest rate and policy solutions would require coordinated actions by the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve to assure access to U.S. dollar money markets, otherwise risk a contraction in global trade," said Richard Hastings, macro and consumer strategist at Global Hunter Securities.
COMMODITIES SLIDE
Analysts are eagerly awaiting the European Central Bank's policy decision on Wednesday and U.S. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's congressional testimony on Thursday, looking for clues on their responses to vulnerable global growth.
Spot gold edged 0.2 percent lower to $1,622.81 an ounce on Monday, largely holding its ground after recording its biggest one-day rally in more than three years on Friday.
U.S. crude futures fell 1.9 percent to $81.65 a barrel to its lowest in almost eight months, and Brent dropped 1.7 percent to $96.79, a 16-month low.
Worries about slowing global growth also pushed Shanghai copper down more than 3 percent to a new 2012 low of around 52,450 yuan ($8,200) a tonne.
Heightened risk aversion pushed up the cost of insuring against corporate and sovereign defaults in Asia, with the spread on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index widening by 13 basis points. ($1 = 6.3690 Chinese yuan)
(Additional reporting by Victoria Thieberger in Melbourne and Vikram Subhedar in Hong Kong; Editing by Mark Bendeich)
Stocks plunge as outlook in Europe dims - Yahoo Finance
Traders fearful of a rupture in Europe's financial system retreated Wednesday from risky investments. They punished stocks and fled to the safety of U.S. bonds, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to a record low.
Major U.S. stock indexes added to earlier losses in afternoon trading, falling 1.5 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 167 points, one of its worst performances of the year, to 12,413.
European stocks had lost even more, and the euro dropped to a nearly two-year low against the dollar. Borrowing rates for Italy and Spain, both of which are seen as the next problem cases in Europe's debt drama, rose sharply as traders dumped bonds issued by those governments.
Rising demand for low-risk, easily tradable securities pushed the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 1.64 percent from 1.74 percent late Tuesday. Yields on German government bonds, also seen as safe, turned lower.
Concerns about Europe seemed to lurk around every corner: the European Commission said consumer confidence fell sharply across the region last month. Spaniards withdrew money from their banks, spreading fear about that nation's ability to go on without bailouts. Spain's main stock index fell two percent.
An opinion poll in Greece showed that the far-left Syriza party is gaining support ahead of key elections. Syriza opposes the system of bailouts and sharp budget cuts that have kept Greece afloat but also punished its economy. If the party wins, Greece may be forced to exit the euro currency. The shockwaves could topple nations that have received bailouts, like Portugal, and those that might need them, like Italy.
Amid the tumult, Europe's executive branch called on the 17 nations that use the currency to create a "banking union" that can centrally oversee and — if needed — bail out the sector.
If Europe's financial crisis plunges it into a deep recession, global economic growth will likely falter, reducing demand for commodities and machines that power growth. Fearing that outcome, traders pushed heavy equipment maker Caterpillar and aluminum company Alcoa to the biggest declines among the 30 companies that make up the Dow.
The euro fell as low as $1.2387, the lowest since the summer of 2010. Benchmark stock indexes closed down 2.7 percent in Spain, 2.2 percent in Italy and 2.4 percent in France.
The Dow has had a miserable May. It's down 5.9 percent for the month, putting it on track this week to end its first losing month since September.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 19 to 1,313. The Nasdaq composite average slid 41 to 2,829.
Metals, food and energy commodities all fell sharply. Crude oil lost nearly $3 to below $88 a barrel. Crude has been falling steadily since the beginning of May, when it traded as high as $106 a barrel.
Spain's borrowing costs soared to the highest level since the country joined the euro. Traders are worried that Spain won't be able to navigate the real estate crash that forced it to bail out one of its biggest lenders, Bankia.
The yield on Spain's 10-year bonds, a key indicator of market confidence in a country's ability to pay down its debt, shot as high as 6.69 percent, matching the level it hit at the height of the euro crisis late last year.
Agricultural giant Monsanto was one of the few big gainers in a sea of red. The stock jumped 2 percent after the company's CEO told investors that earnings will likely surge 25 percent this year, far more than Wall Street had been expecting. Sales were strong in its seed and chemicals business, including Roundup herbicides.
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion plunged 7 percent after the company said late Tuesday it had hired a team of bankers to help it weigh its options — Wall Street jargon for a possible sale or reorganization. RIM's business has been crumbling as smartphone users move to iPhone and Android devices.
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Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.
Stocks slump 1.71% to six-month low - Japan Today
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Stocks slumped 1.71% to a six-month low on Monday after poor U.S. jobs numbers led to sharp falls on Wall Street, with Sony dropping below 1,000 yen for the first time in more than 30 years. The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 144.62 ...Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on June 4 - Reuters
ZURICH, June 4 |
ZURICH, June 4 (Reuters) - Swiss stocks were set to open lower on Monday, mirroring other European bourses as disappointing global data at the end of last week took a toll on risk appetite.
Futures for the blue chip SSMI index were trading down 33 points at 5,745 by 0625 GMT.
The following are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks on Monday:
ROCHE
* A study of Roche's experimental "armed antibody" found it extended the length of time breast cancer patients lived without their disease getting worse, marking the second successful pivotal trial in this new class of cancer drugs.
* Colorectal cancer patients treated with a follow-up round of Avastin, sold by Roche, fare better than those given chemotherapy alone after their disease has worsened, according to results of a large clinical trial.
* Adding cancer drug Avastin to standard chemotherapy doubled the length of time a certain group of advanced ovarian cancer patients lived without their disease getting worse, according to results of a clinical trial.
* German drug company Boehringer Ingelheim said on Monday it would test its experimental lung cancer drug directly against AstraZeneca's Iressa and Roche's Tarceva pill, after it showed promise in a late-stage drug trial.
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ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP
Europe's third-largest insurer Generali said it named Mario Greco, a top executive at Zurich Insurance Group as its new CEO on Saturday, after Giovanni Perissinotto was ousted in a rapid boardroom coup.
* Zurich said on Monday Group CEO Martin Senn would head the general insurance segment on an ad interim basis until a permanent replacement for Greco is announced.
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SONOVA
Demand for hearing aids has not been hurt by the euro zone economic crisis, the chief executive of Sonova said in a newspaper interview on Sunday, but the strong Swiss franc has given the company a big headache.
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COMPANY STATEMENTS
* Danish biotech company Genmab said on Monday it had entered into an agreement with Novartis to use its duobody technology platform.
* Implenia has won a new contract worth 19 million Swiss francs to build a shell of Geneva University Hospital's new ward block.
ECONOMY
* The Swiss National Bank's franc cap of 1.20 per euro should go sooner rather than later to shield the economy, the former head of bank UBS Oswald Gruebel said, while some Swiss parliamentarians called for capital controls to forestall an influx of safe-have flows from the crisis plagued euro zone.
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* Imposing negative interest rates on Swiss franc offshore holdings would do little to curb the currency's strength, Switzerland's economy minister said in a newspaper interview on Saturday.
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* The Swiss government, facing warnings that low interest rates needed to curb the franc's strength are fuelling a bubble in credit and real estate, announced steps on Friday to slow the boom and protect banks.
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