Asia follows Wall Street's lead

Asian stock markets dragged down by Thursday's losses on Wall Street.

U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to limit banks' risk-taking drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 2.0% yesterday. Japan and Australia followed in close lockstep today with the Nikkei down 225 or 2.0%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.8% at 4738.4.

Gold futures drifted $12 an ounce lower in Asia's Friday morning trading, extending their more than 3% drop over the past 48 hours in New York. The broad based selling comes amid concerns that China's economic growth will lead to policy tightening there. February contracts for Gold touched a low of $1,090.50 an ounce in electronic trading overnight, but have since been trading around $1,093.00, down $10.20 by Tokyo's late morning trade. Gold has already plummeted $36.80 in the last two New York sessions, taking out the critical 1095 support level.