Sony, Samsung hit as crisis takes toll

Electronics makers Sony and Samsung gave new proof that the global financial crisis is feeding through businesses and consumers with dark earnings predictions sending Asian stocks sharply lower.

Shares in Japan fell to their lowest in 5-½ years as the stronger yen, which this week has raised the most against the U.S. dollar in a decade, hits the competitiveness of Japanese exporters.

"There are signs that the panic that gripped developed financial markets just two weeks ago is slowly but steadily taking a back seat. Meanwhile, however, the economic situation is becoming ever more precarious," Dresdner Kleinwort analyst Peter Schaffrik said.

Governments and central banks have committed nearly $4 trillion in different strategies including deposit and debt guarantees and taking stakes in struggling banks, to restore confidence.

In Washington, the Treasury Department and banking regulators decided to announce the next batch of banks receiving capital injections as part of its bank bailout package, a source familiar with the Treasury's said.

MISSERABLE FORECASTS

Sony's shares plunged 13 percent to a 13-year low after it divided its profit forecast because the fallout of the financial crisis hit demand for its cameras and flat TVs. The news followed announcements of employment cuts by major U.S. companies such as General Motors and Chrysler, and rouse worries over the earnings of other Asian exporters.

The dollar slid to a 13-year low against the yen as the low-yielding Japanese currency -- once widely used as a cheap source of funds to buy higher-yielding riskier assets -- soared on investors dumping stocks and higher-yielding currencies on deepening worries of a protracted global recession.

The credit crisis, triggered by a wave of defaults on U.S. sub prime mortgages, has wreaked havoc across the world's financial markets, bringing down lenders from Wall Street to Iceland and threatening economies worldwide.