DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: Jitters about the prospects for the semiconductor sector took hold of Asian markets today.</s>DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Andrew Stevens sums up the trading there from our studios in Hong Kong. Good morning, Andrew.</s>ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, David. Good morning, Deborah. Well, hardly surprising, really, the Nasdaq's losses sending a shiver through Asian markets. A tumble, as you say, in the Japanese chip sector sent Tokyo's Nikkei average a third of a percent lower. Automaker Mazda bucking the downtrend, though, closing six percent higher as investors cheered the automaker's move to shift part of its compact vehicle production from Japan to a Ford plant in Europe. Ford owns 33.4 percent of the Japanese car maker. That news offset Mazda's weaker-than-expected earnings, it reported a $43 million operating loss for the first half ending September, largely due to a weak euro. Full-year losses are now expected to hit around $130 million at Mazda. And on the economic front, the Bank of Japan, as expected, stood firm on interest rates, leaving the overnight call rate of .25 percent. But the country's economic planning agency warned Friday that the economic growth rate is likely to slowdown in the second and third quarters next year. In Hong Kong, Richard Li's Pacific Century CyberWorks sank to a 13-month low. That and overall weakness in the telecom sector dragged the key Hang Seng index down about three quarters of one percent. The Nasdaq fall also sending Taiwan chip makers down, the benchmark Taipei Weighted Index lost 1.8 percent, and that is its sixth-straight losing session despite government intervention. And that wraps up the day and the week, indeed, here in Asia. David, Deborah, back to you.</s>MARCHINI: All right, thank you, Andrew.
Nasdaq Losses Send Shiver Through Asian Markets