JOHN YDSTIE, host: Our business news starts with another volatile morning on Wall Street.</s>JOHN YDSTIE, host: U.S. stocks fail again this morning after major declines in Asian and European markets. The Dow Jones fell 162 points and the S&P 500 lost 18 points. Japan's main stock index closed around two percent lower today.</s>JOHN YDSTIE, host: This morning a Commerce Department report says construction of new homes last month fell to the lowest level in more than a decade. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told the Wall Street Journal he expects the turmoil to hurt U.S. growth, although he played down worries about a recession. Investors seem to be taking Countrywide Financial's latest woes as evidence of bigger problems in the credit and mortgage markets.
The main stock indexes in Japan and China closed around 2 percent lower. South Korea's benchmark index suffered its biggest decline in more than five years, falling nearly 7 percent.