12 Jan 2009 | 15:46 Asian equities start week on bearish note Asian equities turned in a mostly bearish performance on the very first session of the week as weak cues from the US markets and continued concerns over the global economic conditions hurt the sentiments. On Friday, the US non-farm payrolls printed a loss of 524000 in December, close to previous estimates of 525,000. For the month of December, unemployment in the world's largest economy rose to a whopping 7.2 percent, the highest rate not seen since 1993. The rise stemmed from losses in every sector category including financial services and manufacturing, the latter, which incidentally showed a trimming of 149,000 positions. The data also wrapped up the government's layoff count for the year 2008, marking it as the worst for labor since World War II ended in 1945. The US equity markets extended their losing spree and Dow Jones industrial avera
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