THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: They were dumping telecom stocks in Asia. Dalton Tanonaka is in Hong Kong with more.</s>DALTON TANONAKA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Deb. Stock markets throughout this region tumbled after a weak performance by U.S. markets Wednesday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng continued its slide toward 2 1/2-year lows, ending the day off more than 2 percent. Conglomerate Swire Pacific lost more than 4 percent after it reported first half profits falling more than 7 percent. Swire owns more than 45 percent of Cathay Pacific Airways. That affiliate continued its fall, closing this day down more than 2 percent. The region's fourth biggest air carrier reported worse-than-expected interim profits on Wednesday. Prices took an even bigger fall in Tokyo with chip stocks leading the way down there. The Nikkei stumbled more than 3 percent. The country's leading phone company lost value following a series of downgrades from brokerage house Nico (ph) Salomon Smith Barney. The broker cut its price target for NTT and its mobile phone division, NTT DoCoMo. The firm did raise its target for number two carrier KDDI but that didn't help as well as the stock plummeted more than 8 percent. And that's a quick look at the market day here in Asia. Back to you, Deb, in New York.</s>MARCHINI: All right, thanks, Dalton. Dalton Tanonaka in our Hong Kong bureau. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Asian Stock Markets Tumble in Reaction to U.S. Markets