Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 0.9 percent as of 10:40 a.m. in Tokyo, paring yesterday’s 1.3 percent rally. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slipped 0.4 percent. The euro declined 0.1 percent and South Korea’s won dropped against 15 of its 16 major counterparts.Cheap burberry - designer bags, shoes, accessories, clothing outlet 2012. Bond risk in Asia rose for the first time this month.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and three party leaders “agreed on all the points of the program with the exception of one which requires further elaboration and discussion” with the so-called troika of lenders, according to a statement from the premier’s office. Chinese consumer prices rose 4.5 percent in January from a year earlier, exceeding the median 4 percent estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Japan’s machinery orders fell more than projected in December and New Zealand’s employment growth slowed last quarter, reports showed.

Global stocks entered a bull market yesterday as the MSCI All-Country World Index extended its gain from its October low to 20 percent. Rio Tinto Ltd., Acer Inc. and Tata Steel Ltd. are among Asian companies scheduled to report earnings today. Profits beat projections at 25 percent of the 316 companies in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index that released quarterly results since Jan. 9, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Japan’s Topix Index declined 0.6 percent. Machinery orders, an indicator of capital spending, fell 7.1 percent from the previous month, the Cabinet Office said. The median of 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 5 percent decline.

Nissan Motor Co. fell 1.8 percent. Japan’s second-biggest automaker reported third-quarter operating profit that missed analysts’ estimates. The automaker’s European operations had a 1.4 billion yen loss in the quarter as a debt crisis sapped demand, according to a statement from the company.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong dropped 1.3 percent. China’s one-year swap rate, the fixed cost to receive the seven-day repurchase rate, climbed 15 basis points to 3.40 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The euro weakened to $1.3242. Greek leaders have effectively agreed on all the issues except for that of cuts to pensions, Panos Beglitis, a spokesman for the Pasok socialist party, told reporters. He said his party was opposed to cuts in main pensions.

Consumer prices rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on its website today. That was more than all 33 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey of economists and a median of 4 percent.

Asian stocks fell and Chinese interest-rate swaps jumped as inflation quickening for the first time in six months added pressure on officials to refrain from any immediate additional cut in banks’ reserve requirements. Burberry kids skirts, cheap burberry skirts for girls sale. The government may wait to see data free from holiday distortions and monitor the effect of yesterday’s increase in retail fuel charges before deciding on the next policy move.

“This cuts into the room for monetary policy easing for now,” said Yao Wei, a Hong Kong-based economist with Societe Generale AG. “However, inflation should resume its decline in February and beyond.”

The one-year swap rate, the fixed cost to receive the seven-day repurchase rate, climbed 15 basis points to 3.40 percent after the release, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.6 percent as of 11:32 a.m. in Tokyo. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) slipped 0.3 percent.
Jump in Food Costs

In December, inflation was 4.1 percent. The Chinese New Year holiday, which ran from Jan. 22 to Jan. 28, boosts prices and retail sales while curbing trade and industrial production. Food costs rose 10.5 percent from a year earlier, up from 9.1 percent in December, today’s report showed.

Starbucks Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. have raised prices on wage and commodity costs and officials plan to boost minimum pay rates nationwide by more than 13 percent annually from 2011 to 2015, according to a government plan released this week.

An increase in fuel prices is to spur production by refiners including China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and PetroChina Co. (857)

“Monetary easing may hold off for one month as the government awaits signs of normalization of the inflation dynamics distorted by the holiday,” said Ding Shuang, a Hong Kong-based economist with Citigroup Inc. He estimates inflation may cool to 4 percent or lower this month.
Factory Prices

Producer-price (CHEFTYOY) inflation eased to 0.7 percent in January from a year earlier after a 1.7 percent gain in December, a separate report from the statistics bureau showed today. That data, too, is distorted by the timing of the holiday.

“It’s comforting that PPI is still decelerating which means upstream pressure is coming down,” Wang Tao, a Hong Kong- based economist with UBS AG, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

The central bank cut lenders’ reserve requirements in December for the first time in three years to boost credit amid moderating overseas sales. The People’s Bank of China this week pledged to ensure loans for first-home buyers as a crackdown on speculation threatens to trigger a slump in the property market.

China should consider fiscal stimulus if Europe’s burberry best womens windbreaker sale 2012 black crisis sparks a recession there that affects the U.S., Asian Development Bank Managing Director-General Rajat Nag said in Tokyo yesterday.

“Countries, particularly China, have to consider the possibility of coming in with necessary fiscal stimulus if the euro zone crisis becomes more serious and if the effects of that spill over into the U.S.,” he said.