Japan, Australia Stock Futures Fall on Earnings, Oil Decline

Japanese and Australian stock futures fell after companies including Alcoa Inc. reported earnings that missed forecasts and commodity prices dropped.

American depositary receipts of Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second-largest carmaker, retreated 0.7 percent from the closing price in Tokyo, after Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. cut its rating on the company. ADRS of Alumina Ltd., partner in the world’s biggest producer of the material used to make aluminum, tumbled 2 percent from the closing price in Sydney. Those of BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s No. 1 mining company, dropped 2 percent.

Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average expiring in June closed at 9,500 in Chicago yesterday, compared with 9,560 in Osaka, Japan. They were bid in the pre-market at 9,500 in Osaka at 8:05 a.m. local time. Futures on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 0.5 percent today.

“Uncertainty is lingering about the economy and corporate earnings” said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager in Tokyo at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. “Investors will likely sell stocks following yesterday’s selloff in the U.S. and Europe on lower energy prices.”

In New York, Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.8 percent to 1,314.16 yesterday, as Japan raised the severity rating of its nuclear crisis to the highest level, oil plunged and sales at Alcoa., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, missed estimates. Futures on the S&P 500 Index gained 0.1 percent today.

Alcoa Misses Estimates

Alcoa’s sales for the first quarter increased 22 percent from a year earlier to $5.96 billion, the company said yesterday in a statement. That trailed the $6.06 billion average estimate of eight analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

J. Front Retailing Co. reported net income of 8.9 billion yen ($106 million) for the 12 months ending March 31, missing its forecast by 8.6 percent, the company said yesterday after markets closed. The Tokyo-based department store operator projected profit will decline 49 percent this year amid lower consumer sentiment following last month’s record earthquake and tsunami.

Crude oil for May delivery plunged 3.3 percent to $106.25 a barrel in New York yesterday, the lowest settlement since March 30, after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecast a “substantial” correction in prices of the fuel. The International Energy Agency and International Monetary Fund said oil prices above $100 a barrel are starting to hurt the global economy.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 2 percent this year through yesterday, compared with gains of 4.5 percent by the S&P 500 and 0.2 percent by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 13.1 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 13.5 times for the S&P 500 and 11.2 times for the Stoxx 600.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency yesterday raised its severity rating of the accident at the Fukushima reactors to the highest level of 7, which matches the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The accident was previously rated 5 on the global scale, the same as the 1979 partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.