Oil prices hit a record high on Wednesday and Tokyo shares struck 10-week lows as fears over tight crude supplies and a slide in U.S. consumer spending fuelled concern over the outlook for the global economy. The dollar edged up after easing in New York on the economic data, which suggested that U.S. interest rates would rise at a gradual pace. Gold prices eased slightly, while Japanese government bonds firmed. U.S. light crude struck $44.25 a barrel, the highest since New York crude futures were launched in 1983, a day after the head of OPEC said there was little the group could do to cool red-hot markets. High energy prices helped push U.S. consumer spending to its biggest fall in nearly three years in June, the government said on Tuesday, triggering a slide on Wall Street. Most Asian stock markets fell, weighed down by fears over the impact of high oil prices on corporate profit growth. Oil prices have jumped more than a third this year.
Tokyo's Nikkei stock average <.N225> had fallen 1.9 percent by midday to 10,924.61, recovering a touch from earlier lows last seen at the end of May. "If oil prices remain this high, that will certainty affect corporate earnings here," said Masayoshi Yano, senior manager of investment information at Tokai Tokyo Securities. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan <.MSCIAPJ> had dropped 0.9 percent by 0235 GMT. Its tech component <.MSCIAPJIT> fell 1.1 percent to stand just off one-year lows. Shares fell around 1.3 percent in Hong Kong <.HSI>, South Korea <.KS11> and Taiwan <.TWII> and 0.3 percent in Australia <.AXJO> and Singapore <.STI>.///