Japan's exports and business sentiment tumbled to offer more evidence of a deepening recession.
Japan, where interest rates were cut to a rock-bottom 0.1 per cent last week and $54 billion in extra government spending was announced over the weekend, reported the worst ever drop in exports in November.
Adding to the gloom, a Reuters Tankan monthly survey showed business sentiment at its lowest since the survey began more than 10 years ago.
The relentless stream of bad news is set to continue later today, when Toyota,
the world's top car maker and Japan's industrial champion, is expected to forecast its first annual parent operating loss in 71 years.
The gloom depressed stocks in most of Asia, but shares crept up in Tokyo, encouraged by the government's move to bolster the world's second-biggest economy with extra spending and news that struggling US car makers secured $17.4 billion in emergency government loans over the weekend.
Tokyo shares were up 1.4 per cent, while MSCI index of stocks elsewhere in Asia and Pacific slipped around 1 per cent.
Toyota trailed the Tokyo market with a 2.8 per cent loss, weighed by expectations that a collapse in global demand and soaring yen will hit its earnings.
Oil prices crawled back from last week's more than four-year lows below $34 per barrel, rising $1 to $43, but that had more to do with the dollar weakness than any sense of optimism about demand.
Reuters