BEIJING – Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday, following Europe and Wall Street down amid growing fears the latest deal to resolve Greece’s debts is faltering.

Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index shed 0.2 percent to 9,238.63 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was off 0.8 percent at 21,194.4. Seoul’s Kospi fell 1.1 percent to 2,002.60.

Global markets rose briefly Wednesday on news China would keep investing in Europe and Greece would fulfill obligations imposed by its creditors. But those hopes waned after a European official warned Greece’s assurances might be inadequate, possibly jeopardizing the latest infusion of money from its European partners.

Asian investors were put off by the lack of a clear outcome over Greece.

“The uncertainty upset the market, especially last night in New York,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Securities in Hong Kong. “I think people are resigned to the fact that Greece really is a lost cause. It doesn’t make sense to throw good money after bad.”

China’s Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.8 percent to 2,361.0. Taipei’s Taiex was down 0.3 percent at 7,977.08 and Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 shed 1.6 percent to 4,183.5. Singapore’s benchmark declined 0.7 percent to 2,989.47.

Asian traders have been disappointed by Beijing’s failure to take more aggressive steps to boost slowing growth by easing credit and investment curbs imposed earlier to fight inflation and surging housing costs, Lun said.

“Of course the play is now for the Chinese government to increase liquidity and relax controls on the property market. But that hasn’t happened,” Lun said.

China’s central bank governor on Wednesday expressed confidence in Europe, his country’s biggest trading partner, and said Beijing will keep buying European government debt.

Chinese leaders have repeatedly expressed sympathy and support for Europe but have made no financial commitments. European leaders are hoping Beijing will contribute to a bailout fund from its $ 3.2 trillion in foreign reserves.

Greece’s creditors want Athens to make up a euro325 million ($ 425 million) funding gap and present written guarantees the governing coalition’s party leaders will carry out the plan if they come to power. European governments worry that after elections expected in April, Greek politicians might renege on austerity measures due to public opposition.

Some analysts have called for an “orderly default,” letting Greece eliminate most or all of its debts, others have warned repercussions could be severe, damaging confidence in other European governments.

For weeks, many analysts have wondered if the bailout loans would be enough given the size of Greece’s debts. Now, there is speculation they may not come in time anyway. Greece has a chunk of loans coming due in March.

Britain’s FTSE shed 0.1 percent on Wednesday, while benchmarks in France and Germany both rose 0.4 percent.

Wall Street also fell on anxiety over Greece. The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its biggest one-day decline this year, falling 97.33 points to 12,780.95.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 7.27 points to 1,343.23, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 16 points to 2,915.83.

On currency markets, the dollar fell to 78.39 yen while the euro held steady at $ 1.303.

Benchmark crude was down 27 cents to $ 101.53 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $ 1.06 to settle at $ 101.80 per barrel in New York on Wednesday. Brent crude was steady at $ 118.93 per barrel in London.

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BANGKOK – Asian stock markets rose Wednesday, swayed by a late-day rally on Wall Street, after Greece indicated a willingness to commit to spending cuts demanded by lenders in exchange for a bailout vital to the country’s solvency.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.8 percent to 9,216.62. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9 percent to 2,021.07 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 1.3 percent to 21,182.38. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.3 percent at 4,256.40.

Markets found hope in reports quoting Greek government officials as saying party leaders would promise by Wednesday to implement deep spending cuts and other reforms.

That came after talks to extricate Greece from a two-year debt crisis appeared to unravel late Tuesday after European finance chiefs canceled a meeting to discuss a second international bailout for the country.

The meeting was called off after Athens failed to deliver on several demands made by its partners in the euro currency union. Greece needs a $ 171 billion (euro130 billion) bailout by March 20 to avoid a default that could rattle the world financial system.

The country has already passed some of the deep spending cuts its lenders were demanding but hasn’t really satisfied anyone. Greeks have rioted, saying the cuts are too harsh, and Greece’s neighbors have expressed concern that the cuts are not enough.

Downbeat economic news from Europe also undermined investor confidence. Greece said its economy shrank drastically at the end of last year, and Europe is expected to report Wednesday that the economies of the 17 countries that use the euro shrank 0.4 percent after growing 0.1 percent the quarter before.

Late Monday, Moody’s also downgraded its debt ratings on six European countries, including Italy, Portugal and Spain. Moody’s also said it might cut France, Austria and the U.K. as well.

News out of the U.S. was also disappointing. The Commerce Department said U.S. retail sales rose 0.4 percent last month, but analysts were expecting 0.7 percent.

Shares of Japanese computer chip maker Elpida Memory Inc. plunged 13.9 percent, after the company said Tuesday that talks were not going well with other companies on investments, loans and partnerships to improve its dire financial conditions.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose marginally to close at 12,878.28. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell nearly 0.1 percent to close at 1,350.50. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.4 points to close at 2,931.83.

Benchmark oil for March delivery rose 4 cents to $ 100.78 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 17 cents to finish at $ 100.74 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $ 1.3145 from $ 1.3095 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar was unchanged at 78.47 yen. On Tuesday, the dollar rose to as high as 78.51 yen, its highest point since Nov. 1.

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GOOD NEWS FROM GREECE: Another step toward another bailout fueled stock gains in the U.S., with all major indexes rising.

GETTING CLOSE: The Dow is now within 16 points of its best close since before the 2008 financial crisis. It has risen 5.4 percent this year.

A MILESTONE: Apple crossed $ 500 per share for the first time, closing at $ 502.60.

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NEW YORK – Investors thinking of buying a piece of Facebook after it goes public are hoping it will perform like Google, whose stock has risen 500 percent since its debut seven and a half years ago.

But they may want to spare a thought for companies slightly less exciting — a truck leasing company, perhaps, or a manufacturer of ball bearings.

Stocks of those two have left Google, and the investors who didn’t get into it early, in the dust in the past several years. So have more than half the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Since the stock market peaked on Oct. 9, 2007, Ryder System Inc., which rents moving trucks, has returned 26 percent, counting dividends. Timken, the ball bearing company, 49 percent.

And the staid Johnson & Johnson, the 125-year-old maker of Tucks ointment to relieve hemorrhoids among thousands of other products, has trounced Google, too — returning 12 percent with dividends.

Google is up more than most stocks if you pick a different starting point, like 2004. But measured from the market peak, it’s down 1.5 percent. In other words, the people who got in then still haven’t broken even — four and half years later.

Even Microsoft, the lumbering software company whose best days are widely considered behind it, has done better, returning 12 percent, counting dividends.

The lesson is that when it comes to hot stocks, you can sit on losses for years if you happen to buy at the top and can’t make up ground with dividend checks.

“They move like rockets, straight up,” says Robert Russell, president of Russell & Co., a wealth management company in Ohio. “But they can fall back to earth, too.”

In a filing earlier this month, Facebook said it plans to sell a yet-unknown stake for $ 5 billion, the largest for an Internet company’s initial public offering. The buzz is that the offering could value the whole company at as much as $ 100 billion — more than Hewlett-Packard, AOL and Yahoo combined.

Whether the newly public stock — ticker symbol FB — will prove profitable for investors is another matter.

For a taste of the dangers of buying stock in companies in the spotlight, check out the performance of Internet IPOs last year. You’ve done OK if you got in at the offering price, set before the stock starts trading. But that’s mostly reserved for the favored customers — pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds and other institutions. The little guy isn’t doing nearly as well.

After sharp rises on the first day of trading, most stocks have fallen. That’s true for Groupon Inc., the online daily deals site, Pandora Media Inc., an Internet radio operator, and the consumer reviews site Angie’s List Inc.

Even the online professional network LinkedIn Corp., a stock that surged Friday on news of unexpected big quarterly profits, is down 4.6 percent from its IPO close.

In hindsight, people looking to strike it rich should have stuck with the IPOs of companies more obscure, like fertilizer maker CVR Partners. Since its public debt in April, the company, which sells nitrogen fertilizer to farmers from a factory in Kansas, is up 77 percent.

Its lucky owners also get something those of pie-in-the-sky Internet outfits can only dream about — dividends. CVR is expected to send checks to its shareholders over the next year of $ 2 per share, or 8 percent of its stock price even after the big run-up.

As it turns out, dividends have played a role in other recent triumphs of the boring over the bedazzling.

During the stock market swoon from Oct. 2007 to March 2009, Johnson & Johnson stock fell only half as much as Google. That’s because J&J still has a fat 3.5 percent dividend yield. Google doesn’t pay a dividend.

Those checks in the mail helped on the way up, too. Without dividends, J&J would have lost 2 percent since the market peak instead of returning 12 percent. Microsoft would be up just 2 percent instead of 12 percent.

Those companies can pay dividends because they make big profits, another thing lacking at many Internet companies. Internet bulls don’t seem to be bothered, preferring to focus on sales. The idea is if you grow them fast, profits will come naturally.

But investors can lose patience waiting.

On Wednesday, Groupon announced that it had tripled revenue last quarter providing deals on restaurant meals, hotel stays, manicures and the like. No matter. The company also said it hadn’t turned a profit — not yet at least. Its stock fell 14 percent.

Facebook is already profitable, but not enough to justify that top-end value of $ 100 billion. At that lofty height, the company would trade at 145 times what it earned in 2011. The S&P 500 is trading at 15 times last year’s profits.

So investors are talking about Facebook’s almost $ 3.7 billion in sales last year, which helps justify the value a bit more, maybe. At $ 100 billion, Facebook stock would be trading at 27 times sales. LinkedIn is trading at 20 times and Google at five.

We’d all be rich, of course, if picking stocks was just a matter of checking sales multiples or dividend yields or any other simple gauge. Apple doesn’t pay a dividend, for instance, but that didn’t stop it from rising. Facebook could indeed become the next Apple.

But when it comes to investing, you could do worse than avoiding exciting new businesses in the headlines and putting your money instead into tired old ones you never see articles about, and wouldn’t care to read if you did.

Like a company hawking deep fryers.

National Presto Industries makes Big Daddy fryers and other kitchen gadgets as well as what’s delicately called “incontinence products,” better known as adult diapers. It’s run out of a cinderblock converted World War II munitions factory in Eau Claire, Wis., by Maryjo Cohen, a woman so frugal she refused for years to fly anything but coach on business trips, upgrade from Microsoft Office 97 on her computer or replace the Eisenhower-era iron desks at headquarters.

Better to save money for dividends, which the company has been paying for 67 years. That’s 40 years before the birth of Mark Zuckerberg, the hoodie-wearing Facebook CEO.

Cohen prefers sensible skirts and blouses but somehow has managed to lift Presto stock up 90 percent above where it was trading at the stock market peak. With dividends, it’s returned 157 percent.

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BAILOUT BLUES: U.S. stocks took their biggest slide so far this year on news that European countries that share the euro with Greece want it to make deeper spending cuts in exchange for bailout money. Stocks had risen just a day before on hopes the bailout was imminent.

EVERYONE DOWN: The declines were broad with all ten industry groups in the S&P 500 stock index down. Materials stocks fell the most, 1.8 percent. Jeans maker True Religion Apparel plunged 28 percent after its earnings fell far below what analysts were expecting.

GOLD DID WHAT?: The safe-haven metal usually rises when stocks fall, but on Friday it fell 1 percent. “People are speculating, and so the drop could get bigger,” said Mark Matson, CEO of Matson Money.

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BANGKOK – Asian stock markets dropped Friday after Europe’s finance ministers demanded more spending cuts from Greece before clearing a euro130 billion ($ 170 billion) bailout to stave off the country’s bankruptcy.

Benchmark oil hovered below $ 99 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro but fell against the yen.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent to 8,978.33. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.6 percent to 20,888.68 and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.9 percent to 1,996.71. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.8 percent to 4,250.70.

Greece announced an agreement with European debt inspectors Thursday to cut costs and keep from defaulting on its debt next month, an event that would send shock waves through the world financial system.

But finance ministers from nations that use the euro said Athens didn’t go far enough and have given Greece just a few more days to find an extra euro325 million ($ 430 million) of spending cuts and get parliament to approve the measures.

All that suggests “further uncertainty on the horizon,” Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong wrote in an email. “A Greek parliamentary vote set to begin this weekend may see some progress but markets will trade cautiously ahead of the vote.”

The austerity package that failed to satisfy European finance ministers already calls for Greece to make steep new cuts in government jobs and spending. The country’s international lenders insisted on the cuts as a condition for a euro130 billion emergency bailout that Greece urgently needs to make a bond payment next month.

The cuts will be hard to implement in a country that has grown used to profligate government spending. Protesters have taken to the streets of Athens regularly to denounce the government and its austerity measures.

Jackson Wong, vice president at Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong, said investors were taking profits after markets posted solid gains earlier in the week.

“Everyone is waiting for results to see if the 130 billion euro rescue fund can be dispersed,” he said.

Second-tier stocks in Hong Kong, particularly appliance makers, were benefiting from the rotation out of blue chips that often occurs once the market reaches a temporary high, Wong said. Haier Electronics Group Co. soared 7.9 percent and Skyworth Digital Holdings rose 4.9 percent. GOME Electrical Appliances was 1.8 percent up.

But financial shares sagged amid the uncertainty surrounding Greece. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group lost 2 percent. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group fell 1 percent. South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group Co. lost 3.2 percent.

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto dropped 2.3 percent, a day after reporting a 59 per cent slump in full year profit due to a writedown of its aluminum business. Rival BHP Billiton, which reported weaker-than-expected profits earlier this week, fell 2.4 percent. Energy Resources of Australia tumbled 3 percent.

Hong Kong-listed Lenovo Group Ltd., the world’s second biggest personal computer maker, jumped 4.2 percent a day after reporting that quarterly profit grew by more than half.

On Wall Street, stocks were helped Thursday by U.S. jobs data. The number of people seeking unemployment assistance fell to its lowest level since April 2008.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.1 percent to 12,890.46. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.2 percent to 1,351.95. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.4 percent to 2,927.23.

Benchmark oil fell 38 cents to $ 99.46 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $ 1.13 to finish at $ 99.84 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $ 1.3266 from $ 1.3290 late Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.61 yen from 77.66 yen.

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A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Wednesday:

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ATHENS, Greece — The political leaders backing Greece’s coalition government have ended their meeting after seven-and-a-half hours without an agreement on the austerity proposals of the so-called “troika” of bailout creditors — the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

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LONDON — Markets were cautious as investors waited for Greek political leaders to endorse an austerity plan that would allow the country to claim its second bailout.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed 0.2 percent lower while Germany’s DAX fell 0.1 percent. The CAC-40 in France also ended 0.1 percent lower.

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TOKYO — In Asia, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo gained 1.1 percent, its highest finish since Oct. 28.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 1.5 percent while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.4 percent and the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index gained 2.8 percent.

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BEIJING — China’s government promised to raise minimum wages by 13 percent a year through 2015 and to launch measures to generate 45 million new jobs.

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BERLIN — German exports climbed 11.4 percent last year to top the $ 1.3 trillion mark for the first time, official figures showed, though a decline in December underlined the likelihood of slower growth ahead as Europe grapples with its debt crisis.

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NEW YORK – Stocks are ending higher as Greece appeared close to announcing a deal with creditors to reduce its debt.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended at its highest level since May 2008 Tuesday.

The Dow rose 33 points to close at 12,878. It hasn’t closed higher since May 2008, before the financial crisis. It had been down as many as 62 points in the first half-hour of trading.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 3 points to 1,347. The Nasdaq composite rose 2 points to 2,904.

Indexes rose on a report that Greek leaders will soon tell European finance ministers they’ve formed a deal to reduce the country’s massive debt. Stocks also rose on news that U.S. job openings soared to the highest level in nearly three years in December.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks edged lower on Monday as a delay by debt-ridden Greece in accepting the terms of a bailout gave investors little reason to buy equities after a five-week rally.

Athens allowed another deadline to slip by as political leaders failed to respond to bailout terms from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Greece needs the funds by March to meet big debt repayments or face a messy default.

The S&P has rallied for five straight weeks, helped in part by a run of better-than-expected U.S. economic data that was capped by Friday’s solid employment report. The broad-based index is up nearly 7 percent for the year.

“In light of the uncertain negotiations with Greece, the markets have stabilized,” said Chad Morganlander, portfolio manager at Stifel Nicolaus & Co in Florham Park, New Jersey. “People are waiting to see the finalization of the Greek plan.”

Morganlander added that recent actions by central banks in Europe and the United States to maintain loose monetary policies were behind the current resilience and reduced volatility in equity markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was down 35.95 points, or 0.28 percent, at 12,826.28. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) was down 3.32 points, or 0.25 percent, at 1,341.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 8.57 points, or 0.29 percent, at 2,897.09.

With stocks up so much this year, any adverse developments out of Europe were likely to bring a least a cooling-off period for markets.

“It’s inevitable the risk profile that Greece represents is definitely going to cool the market tone, there is absolutely no way around that,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Hasbro Inc (HAS.O) rose 1.6 percent to $ 36.42 after the toymaker reported a fourth-quarter profit just above analysts’ lowered expectations.

Humana Inc (HUM.N) posted a big rise in fourth-quarter profit, but revenues came in below the Wall Street view. Its shares fell 5.6 percent to $ 85.10. The Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index (.HMO) lost 1.4 percent.

Through Monday morning, of the 290 companies in the S&P 500 reporting results, 60 percent posted earnings that topped expectations, tracking below recent quarters at this point of the reporting season.

Technical analysts at Instinet in New York said a host of metrics, such as an upturn in the S&P 500′s moving averages and a strong move up in January boded well for equity prices in the medium term.

“The persistency of both price appreciation and breadth since the beginning of the year suggests the next pullback will be a precursor to another attack on the 2011 highs in the S&P 500 near 1,370.”

Fidelity National Financial Inc (FNF.N) agreed to buy casual dining chain O’Charley’s Inc (CHUX.O) for $ 9.85 a share. The title insurer already owned about 9.5 percent of the stock. O’Charley’s surged 42 percent to $ 9.82.

Semiconductor stocks lost ground, dragged lower by a drop in Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) in the first trading session after the death of its chief executive. Micron shares were off 2.4 percent to $ 7.76, while the PHLX semiconductor index (.SOX) dropped 1.4 percent.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Boerse’s (DB1Gn.DE) chief executive Reto Francioni should step down following the collapse of its $ 7.4 billion plan to merge with NYSE Euronext (NYX.N), a member of the German exchange operator’s supervisory board told a newspaper.

“The question needs to be asked whether there have to be consequences (for management),” Johannes Witt, a board member representing the interests of labour, told German weekly Euro am Sonntag in comments published on Saturday.

“Can someone who wanted to change the status quo by finding a partner only to see that (deal) collapse still lead this company into the future?”

Francioni’s term ends in December, and contract extensions for CEOs in Germany are often agreed about a year in advance.

On Thursday, Boerse and NYSE terminated their merger plans after the European Commission blocked the deal to prevent handing the combined group a “near monopoly.

Boerse’s labour leaders had undermined its campaign to convince German regulators a deal strengthened Frankfurt’s role as a financial centre when they urged shareholders to reject the deal, fearing key responsibilities would be moved to New York.

Separately, Deutsche Bank’s German retail asset management unit DWS called for a fresh start at the exchange operator in comments published by business weekly WirtschaftsWoche on Saturday.

“The merger tied up management capacity for more than a year. In the past couple of years, Boerse has stagnated, and now more dynamism needs to return,” said Henning Gebhardt, head of European equities at DWS.

“Now and then there needs to be a fresh start – whatever form that might take (…) Francioni, of all people, does not come out of this without a scratch,” Gebhardt told the magazine.

The fund manager said he was also unsatisfied with Boerse’s development in overseas markets.

“Asia is where it’s at. That’s where to go for a piece of the action. I’m starting to suspect that the Boerse is not always the preferred partner there,” he said.

“The company must listen more closely to what its customers want, since they are looking for alternatives and are migrating to new platforms like Chi-X or Bats,” Gebhardt continued.

Boerse Chairman Manfred Gentz has rejected the idea of any immediate consequences for the Boerse due to the collapse of the NYSE merger, however, calling instead for calm and continuity.

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner, additional reporting by Andreas Kroener)

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