GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks sag as US auto woes stir caution

                                
 * Asia stocks fall despite late rally on Wall St
                                
 * Oil hovers near 22-month low below $55
                                
 * Yen gains on risk aversion, emerging FX weak
                                
 * US Treasury 2-yr yield near record low
                                
 By Eric Burroughs
                                
 HONG KONG, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Most Asian stocks edged down
on Wednesday and regional currencies slid, as a plea from U.S.
automakers for a bailout from Washington highlighted how the
financial crisis is hurting broad swathes of the global
economy.
                                
 Major European stock markets were expected to open slightly
higher, according to financial bookmakers, after a late rally
on Wall Street, but convictions were low and trading volumes
slim.
                                
 Market players were spooked as executives at Detroit's Big
Three gave a dire warning to Congress about their outlook while
asking for $25 billion of funds. [ID:nN18548335]
                                
 Oil was up a tad at $54.50 <CLc1> but still near a 22-month
low on mounting worries about a deep global recession,
highlighted by data showing confidence amongst U.S. home
builders plunging to a record low. [ID:nN18265664]
                                
 Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> slipped 0.7 percent, driven
in part by falling bank shares after No. 1 Mitsubishi UFJ
Financial Group <8306.T> suffered a 61 percent drop in
quarterly profit and a report said Sumitomo Mitsui Financial
Group <8316.T> aimed to raise $4.2 billion in capital.
[ID:nT348510]
                                
 The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> fell 0.3 percent and was not far from a
four-and-a-half-year low hit last month. The U.S. S&P 500
<.SPX> had gained 1 percent on Tuesday.
                                
 Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 <.AXJO> shed 0.7 percent
on a drop in non-financial shares after authorities lifted a
ban on short selling.
                                
 Troubles plaguing the banking system have yet to abate
despite the efforts of central banks to get credit flowing
again and problems have now spread to the broader global
economy, leading to recessions in Japan, Europe and elsewhere.
                                
 Citigroup's <C.N> plans to slash 52,000 jobs underscored
the financial sector woes, with shares of the second-largest
U.S. bank still falling to a 13-year low on worries its efforts
to return to health may not be enough.
                                
 The U.S. housing market collapse at the heart of the crisis
showed signs of deteriorating further. The National Association
of Home Builders index plunging to a record low of 9 in
November. At its peak in 2005, the index reached 72.
[USNAHB=ECI]
                                
 "It confirms suspicions of another serious downleg in
housing being under way and feeding into an already ugly
recession," said Jan Lambregts, head of Asia research at
Rabobank in Hong Kong.
                                
 Analysts said investors needed clarity on how deep the U.S.
recession and global downturn will be before committing funds
to battered shares. The MSCI Asia Pacific index has plunged 59
percent so far this year.
                                
 EMERGING FX HIT
                                
 The South Korean won <KRW=> hit a three-week low and the
KOSPI index <.KS11> shed 1.9 percent as market players have
kept shedding riskier assets in stocks and emerging markets to
minimise losses as year-end approaches.
                                
 The weakness in emerging market currencies knocked the
Philippine peso <PHP=> down and led to suspected purchases by
the country's central bank to prop it up, while the Indonesian
rupiah <IDR=> slid to a seven-year low.
                                
 Societe Generale emerging markets strategist Patrick Bennet
said the rupiah faced a potential crisis of capital flight
until the global economy stabilises and there are some signs of
risk-sensitive capital returning.
                                
 The yen climbed as falling stocks spurred selling of
higher-yielding currencies as investors shifted funds into the
relative safety of the Japanese currency as well as the U.S.
dollar.
                                
 The dollar dipped to 96.70 yen <JPY=>, down from 96.96 yen,
where it was late in New York. The euro was steady at $1.2630
<EUR=>.
                                
 The dollar index, a gauge of its performance against a
basket of six major currencies, was steady at 87.125 <.DXY> and
held near a 2-1/2-year peak struck last week.
                                
 The dollar has been propelled higher by the scramble among
banks for dollar funding, as well as portfolio managers and
hedge funds dumping assets and boosting cash holdings as they
face investor redemptions.
                                
 Falling stocks gave a boost to safe-haven government bonds.
Japanese government bond futures <2JGBv1> edged up 0.22 point
to 138.83, near a five-week high of 138.87 hit earlier.
                                
 The two-year U.S. Treasury yield <US2YT=RR> was at 1.14
percent, near a record low of 1.07 percent touched in 2003 when
the Federal Reserve last slashed rates down to 1 percent.
                                
 The Fed is widely expected to cut rates to 0.5 percent in
December, what would be the lowest level since the 1950s, as it
attempts to revive the economy. <FEDWATCH>
 (Editing by Alex Richardson)