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Asian stocks fell Wednesday after the U.S. government revised its economic growth estimate downward and climbing yields on Spanish bonds magnified worries over Europe’s debt load.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.7 percent to 17,941.62. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.7 percent to 1,795.81 and Australia’s S&P ASX 200 index lost 1.2 percent to 4,082.40.

Japanese stock markets were closed for a public holiday.

Stocks on Wall Street slipped Tuesday after a government report showed the U.S. economy grew at a 2 percent annual rate from July through September, down from an initial estimate of 2.5 percent. Economists had expected the figure to remain the same.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.5 percent to close at 11,493.72. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.4 percent to 1,188.04. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1 percent to 2,521.28.

Higher borrowing costs for Spain, meanwhile, renewed worries about Europe’s debt crisis. The higher rates suggest that investors are still skeptical that the country will get its budget under control despite a new government coming to power this week.

Investors have been worried that Spain could become the next country to need financial support from its European neighbors if its borrowing rates climb to unsustainable levels.

Greece was forced to seek relief from its lenders after its long-term borrowing rates rose above 7 percent on the bond market. The rate on Spain’s own benchmark 10-year bond is dangerously close to that level, 6.58 percent.

But fears of the debt crisis spreading elsewhere in Europe were allayed somewhat after the International Monetary Fund announced a plan to provide quick cash on flexible terms to countries facing sudden financial stress.

Concerns remain that Europe’s debt crisis is pushing the region toward recession, which would slow industrial activity in Europe and in countries around the world that export to Europe.

Benchmark oil for January delivery fell 65 cents to $97.36 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.09 to finish at $98.01 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3466 from $1.3509 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar rose slightly to 76.99 yen from 76.97 yen.

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Stock futures are rising as borrowing costs for Italy and Spain decline, a signal that the European debt crisis might be easing.

Spain and Italy have had to pay high interest rates because bondholders fear that that they will default. Holders of Greek bonds have had to take steep losses.

The Conference Board reports at 10 a.m. on its index of leading economic indicators. Economists expect the index to rise 0.4 percent after September’s 0.2 percent gain.

H payday loans no faxing.J. Heinz Co. slipped in premarket trading after its second-quarter net income fell almost 6 percent.

S&P 500 futures are up 11 points, or 0.9 percent, at 1,225 at 8 a.m. Dow futures are up 84, or 0.7 percent, at 1,823. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 14, or 0.6 percent, at 2,282.

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Searching for help, President Barack Obama lobbied the skeptical leaders of Russia and China on Saturday for support in keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed menace to the world, hoping to yield a “common response” to a crisis that is testing international unity.

Yet Obama’s talk of solidarity with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao was not publicly echoed by either man as Iran moved anew to the fore of the international stage _ and to the front of the fierce U.S. presidential race.

Obama, at home in Hawaii and holding forth on a world stage, also sought to show aggressiveness in fixing an economy that has weakened his standing with voters. He pushed Hu about American impatience with China’s economic policy, touted the makings of a new pacific trade zone and showered attention on the lucrative Asia-Pacific export market.

The United States’ vast worries about Iran grew starker with a report this week by the U.N. atomic agency that asserted in the strongest terms yet Iran is conducting secret work with the sole intent of developing nuclear arms. The U.S. claims a nuclear-armed Iran could set off an arms race among rival states and directly threaten Israel.

Russia and China remain a roadblock to the United States in its push to tighten international sanctions on Iran. Both are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council and have shown no sign the new report will change their stand.

With Medvedev on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit here, Obama said the two “reaffirmed our intention to work to shape a common response” on Iran.

Shortly after, Obama joined Hu, in a run of back-to-back diplomacy with the heads of two allies that hold complicated and at times divisive relations with the United States. Obama said that he and the Chinese leader want to ensure that Iran abides by “international rules and norms.”

Obama’s comments were broad enough to portray a united front without yielding any clear indication of progress. Medvedev, for his part, was largely silent on Iran during his remarks, merely acknowledging that the subject was discussed. Hu did not mention Iran at all.

White House aides insisted later that Russia and China remain unified with the United States and other allies in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and that Obama, Hu and Medvedev had agreed to work on the next steps. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the new allegations about Iran’s programs demand an international response, and “I think the Russians and the Chinese understand that. We’re going to be working with them to formulate that response.”

As the president held forth on the world stage in his home state, Republicans vying to compete against Obama for the presidency unleashed withering criticism in a debate in South Carolina. It was a rare moment in which foreign policy garnered attention in a campaign dominated by the flagging U.S. economy.

“If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” said Romney, the former Massachusetts governor. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann warned that Iran’s attempt to develop a nuclear weapon is setting the table “for worldwide nuclear war against Israel.”

Iran has insisted its nuclear work is in the peaceful pursuit of energy and research, not weaponry.

U.S. officials have said the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency was unlikely to persuade China and Russia to support tougher sanctions on the Iranian government. But led by Obama, the administration is still trying to mount pressure on Iran, both through the United Nations and its own, for fear of what may come should Iran proceed undeterred.

More broadly, Obama sought Saturday to position the United States as a Pacific power determined to get more American jobs by tapping the explosive potential of the Asia-Pacific.

For businesses, he said, “this is where the action’s going to be.”

“There is no region in the world that we consider more vital than the Asia-Pacific region,” he told chief executives gathered for a regional economic summit.

The president went so far as to saying the United States had grown “a little bit lazy” in trying to attract business to the United States.

Obama’s aides said he was blunt with Hu in expressing concern about China’s undervalued currency, which keeps its exports cheaper and U.S. exports to China more expensive.

Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Froman said Obama made it clear that Americans are growing “increasingly impatient and frustrated” with the state of change in China economic policy. China had a $273 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year and U.S. lawmakers say the imbalance hurts American manufacturers and taken away American jobs.

Underscoring the search for some good economic news ahead heading toward a re-election vote, Obama announced the broad outlines of an agreement to create a transpacific trade zone encompassing the United States and eight other nations. He said details must still be worked out, but said the goal was to complete the deal by next year.

“The United States is a Pacific power and we’re here to stay,” Obama said.

The eight countries joining the U.S. in the zone would be Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Obama also spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda about Japan’s interest in joining the trade bloc.

In a sign of potential tension with China, Froman shrugged off complaints from China that it had not been invited to join the trade bloc.

He told reporters that China had not expressed interest in joining and said the trade group “is not something that one gets invited to. It’s something that one aspires to.”

Addressing the European debt crisis, Obama said he welcomed the new governments being formed in Greece and Italy, saying they should help calm world financial markets. Obama’s ever increasing attention to the Asia-Pacific is driven in part by Europe’s own financial woes and the U.S. need to get more aggressive in tapping its export options.

Obama will be in Honolulu through Tuesday, when he leaves for Australia before ending his trip in Indonesia.

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A push to build a Pacific free trade bloc gained ground Friday with Japan’s decision to join negotiations, as Asia-Pacific leaders converging on Hawaii for an annual summit mulled ways to prevent Europe’s crisis from derailing the global recovery.

The weekend meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which brings together leaders from Russia to Chile, is focused on creating jobs and business through nuts-and-bolts measures such as investment in infrastructure and reforms aimed at providing more access to financing for the poor.

Such moves are gaining urgency, with the European Union warning of a possible “deep and prolonged recession” next year as the debt crisis that has engulfed Ireland, Portugal and Greece shows signs of spiraling out of control. A European recession would be felt sharply in the U.S., where growth is already anemic, and in Asia, which relies on Europe as a big market for its cars, clothing, consumer electronics and other exports.

“In the coming 12 months there is quite a strong likelihood that things will go worse,” Hong Kong’s chief executive, Donald Tsang, told a gathering of business leaders on the sidelines of the APEC meetings. “Global performance will be dragged down and then there will be an awakening, I hope,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in opening a meeting of foreign and economic ministers that many forces outside the Pacific region will have an impact on it. “Global trends and world events have given us a full and formidable agenda,” she said. “And the stakes are high for all of us.”

As host of the annual summit, the U.S. has made expanding trade, promoting green growth and deepening cooperation on regulation and standards to help dismantle barriers to trade and nurture faster growth.

“We’ve even created an unofficial slogan: ‘Get Stuff Done,” Clinton said.

The U.S. also is hoping to garner support for a Pacific free trade pact that many APEC members see as a building block for a free trade area that encompasses all of Asia and the Pacific, covering half the world’s commerce and two-fifths of its trade.

That goal advanced Friday with Japan’s announcement that it will seek to join the bloc, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite strong opposition from farmers fearful of exposure to greater foreign competition.

The Pacific trade pact, known as the TPP, currently includes Chile, New Zealand, Brunei and Singapore _ all relatively small economies. The U.S., Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Peru are negotiating to join. The participation of Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, would vastly expand its reach.

At the same time they are working toward a broader agreement, countries continue to forge separate free-trade agreements. On Friday, Vietnam and Chile were to due to sign a free trade agreement on the sidelines of the APEC meetings.

The U.S. recently clinched long-sought free trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama _ agreements that if ratified will bring to 20 the number of countries that have free trade agreements with the U.S.

In Honolulu, Washington was keeping up pressure on China to commit to faster trade liberalization and to freeing its currency, which U.S. officials say remains undervalued even though it has gained substantially against the U.S. dollar in recent years.

A statement by APEC finance ministers released Thursday included a call for exchange rate flexibility. Treasury Department officials said China’s willingness to back such a commitment _ both at the Group of 20 meeting in Cannes last week and in Honolulu this week _ could encourage similar moves by other Asia-Pacific economies.

But Beijing’s apparent openness to move faster on its currency policy was not matched by similar support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which earlier this week a senior official in Beijing described as “overly ambitious.”

Overall, given APEC’s lack of negotiating power _ all decisions are by consensus _ prospects for major changes are slim. But over the years the group’s incremental efforts have helped build support for closer economic ties and freer trade.

Clinton said that by agreeing on something as rudimentary as shared safety standards for televisions, countries in the region saw exports of TVs jump by nearly half in three years.

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Surrounded by dozens of cardboard boxes packed with 4 million petition signatures, the presidents of major Japanese automakers demanded Monday the end of what they called exorbitant taxes on cars that threaten to hollow out manufacturing and wipe out jobs.

The plea from the heads of Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. as well as representatives from auto unions and dealers _ a rare show of combined forces _ underlines the industry’s crisis from the March tsunami disaster, the surging yen and stagnant sales.

“This goes beyond the problem of a hollowing out of the economy. The industry could be destroyed,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda said after standing with other officials with clenched fists. “Once jobs are lost overseas, it is impossible to recover them.”

The officials said they want to retain manufacturing in Japan as much as possible to keep technological development going, as well as protecting jobs.

But the odds are stacked against them, they said, partly because of a complex system of taxation on cars estimated to be about twice or triple those in Great Britain and Germany, and a whopping 49 times the U.S.

Also battering Japan’s manufacturers has been the strong yen, which eats away at the value of overseas sales. Each time the dollar falls by one yen, the eight major Japanese automakers lose 80 billion yen ($1 billion).

The auto execs appear to have public opinion on their side. They were taking to the government a petition demanding the end of such taxes, signed by more than 4.3 million people in just two months.

Japanese taxeswhich are paid each year for ownership in addition to the time of purchase, are so high that over a decade a car owner pays more in taxes than their original outlay on the vehicle, they said.

Reducing the tax burden would potentially add some 920,000 vehicles to annual auto sales in Japan, according to a government estimate.

Japan’s annual sales of new autos have shrunk to about 4.25 million vehicles, falling from a peak 7.8 million vehicles in 1990.

Studies show younger people’s interest in cars has been fading rapidly, especially in urban areas. Rural residents tend to need more than one car per household, but are suffering from the heavy tax burden.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan disrupted parts supplies and slowed production, battering the profits at the Japanese automakers. Just as they were starting to recover and make up for lost production, the recent flooding in Thailand has disrupted the supply chain again.

Toyoda said Japan needs to recover from the disaster, and help for the auto industry is critical in the recovery.

“Please look at all of us who are here today,” he told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. “We want to speed up the recovery so we are all here.”

The representatives also asked that tax breaks on green cars, which began in 2008 and are set to end next year, be continued to keep sales of hybrids and electric vehicles going.

“The sense of crisis we have is unprecedented,” said Nissan Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga.

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The threat that floodwaters will inundate Thailand’s capital could ease by early November as record-high levels in the river carrying torrents of water downstream from the country’s north begin to decline, authorities said Sunday.

Bangkok’s immediate prospects remain uncertain, however, as the front lines in battling the flood from north, east and west of the city draw closer daily.

The relatively rosy longer term projection from the Flood Relief Operations Center came just a day after reports that Bangkok’s main Chao Phraya river was overflowing its banks and at its highest levels in seven years.

People should not be too concerned because the spillover could be drained, said the center’s chief, Justice Minister Pracha Promnok, in a televised news conference. He also said water in an overflowing main canal in Bangkok was receding, and drainage efforts east and west of the city were working well.

The situation was dire in many respects in the capital’s northern outskirts and Thailand’s central provinces, which suffered the worst of the flooding after heavy monsoon rains since July.

Off a highway heading north of the city, Associated Press reporters found people scrambling for safety in flooded streets.

The Thai military used boats to help rescue stranded residents near a domestic airport in northern outer Bangkok that has been the flood-operations headquarters and a shelter for evacuees.

Mothers walked in hip-high water with children strapped to their backs, while other people waded through the murky water holding belongings in plastic bags atop their heads.

There are concerns the Don Muang airport itself may be vulnerable, and the European Union canceled an aid-handover ceremony scheduled there Monday due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

In Nonthaburi province, just north of Bangkok, a 7-foot (2-meter) crocodile was captured while resting on dry land outside a restaurant, presumably after pulling itself out of the surrounding floodwaters. Thai television showed the beast, which had reportedly escaped from a farm, with its snout taped shut and its scaly body covering most of a boat that was carrying it away.

An Associated Press photographer saw two crocodiles that had been killed in Nonthaburi, and unconfirmed recent reports have claimed up to 100 crocodiles may have escaped from farms in the region.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has said the waters may take up to six weeks to recede to manageable proportions around Bangkok payday loans guaranteed no fax. The government has cautioned that rumors have been quick to circulate and people should check all information, advice that follows strong criticism of the government for missteps and confusion since the crisis began.

Residents of Bangkok and its suburbs have settled into a routine of waiting and worrying.

Many are hoarding supplies, and supermarket shelves have emptied faster than they can be restocked. Bottled water, batteries and canned food were among the first items to go.

At a supermarket in central Bangkok’s business district _ which is not under immediate threat _ sandbags lined both entrances Sunday, forcing shoppers to step over to go inside. Many of the shelves were bare, with the handful of shoppers inside grabbing the few snacks that were left. Cat food and toilet paper were gone.

While larger stores in Bangkok have kept their prices fixed, smaller merchants were raising theirs in the flooded zones north of the city. A Rangsit resident, Taweetit Hongsang, complained that the price of a papaya, 10 baht (33 cents) a week ago, had shot up to 30 baht ($1).

The desperate battle to route the water away from the city has led to several conflicts in which people have used force to try to protect their own neighborhoods by removing flood barriers.

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said Sunday one crew of city workers was unable to carry out reinforcement of one barrier because of “a group of people opposing the mission and harassing” them. He said it was necessary to withdraw them “since they are not trained to deal with unruly and armed outsiders.”

In evident response, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she had delegated high-ranking police officers to protect workers carrying out anti-flood duties.

The flooding that began in August has killed 356 people in Thailand and the $6 billion cost estimate could double if Bangkok is badly hit.

The flooding is the worst to hit Thailand since 1942 and is proving a major test for Yingluck’s nascent government, which took power in July after heated elections and has come under fire for not acting quickly or decisively enough to prevent major towns north of the capital from being ravaged by floodwaters.

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The finance chiefs from the euro’s 17 countries hunkered down Friday to overcome differences over how to strengthen a bailout fund, which is key to preventing the currency union’s debt troubles from spinning out of control.

Giving the euro440 billion ($607 billion) European Financial Stability Facility much more firepower is considered essential before the eurozone can deal with its two other main problems: cutting Greece’s massive debts and forcing weak banks to boost their capital buffers to shore up their defenses against worsening market turmoil.

“Once we have the option for the leveraging (of the EFSF) then _ building on that _ we can develop all other points,” said Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter, as the arrived for the meeting in Brussels.

Markets appeared to be giving Europe the benefit of the doubt, trading substantially higher Friday even though a wide-ranging plan to deal with the crippling debt crisis won’t be in time for Sunday’s summit of EU leaders. A second meeting on Wednesday has been scheduled.

“Considering the importance of the discussions and there potential impact upon the European economy, global capital markets and the future of the EU itself a delay of a few days is neither here nor there in the overall scheme of things,” said Gary Jenkins, an analyst at Evolution Securities. “However the suggestions that they are still far apart on how to make best use of the EFSF is of some concern.”

Governments have ruled out increasing their financial commitments, but they acknowledge that with some euro140 billion already going to Ireland, Portugal and Greece, the EFSF isn’t big enough to both help recapitalize weak banks and keep big economies like Italy and Spain from being dragged into the crisis.

A failure to agree on the best way of maximizing the fund’s impact between Germany and France forced European leaders to call another crisis summit for Wednesday _ on top of the two-day talks between finance ministers and a first summit of EU leaders this weekend.

Austria’s Fekter said up to seven technical options for giving the EFSF more leverage were currently on the table and both she and German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble ruled out the possibility that the fund will be able to tap into the vast resources of the European Central Bank. That proposal is still being pushed by France, which sees ECB help as the best way of giving the EFSF the necessary force.

A high-ranking German official, who declined to be named, said that a combination of two options had crystallized as the most likely solution.

The first would involve the bailout fund acting as an insurer for bond issues from wobbly countries like Italy. That would essentially compensate investors against a first round of losses and help to support their bonds and keep the borrowing costs from rising too far.

In addition, the International Monetary Fund _ which has already provided about a third of the bailout cash for Greece, Ireland and Portugal _ would supply other stragglers with precautionary credit lines to make sure they have a ready access to cheap money.

Last weekend, at a meeting in Paris, the finance chiefs from the Group of 20 leading economies, opened the door for a larger role by the IMF, but only if the eurozone first does its part.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who joined the ministers in Brussels Friday, said that her institution would do everything it could to help Europe.

“We will find solutions,” she said, without going into details.

Europe’s leaders have already told their counterparts in the G-20 that they will have a plan ready to present to them at their next meeting in Cannes, France, in early November.

But Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg who also chairs the meetings of eurozone finance ministers, said the announcement to delay all decisions until the next summit on Wednesday looked “disastrous” to the outside world. He also canceled a press conference that had originally been scheduled for after Friday’s meeting, indicating that hopes were low of having clear results to present.

There appeared to be some progress on finding a solution on Greece, which has been paralyzed for much of this week. Sporadic outbreaks of violence during a two-day general strike against the government’s austerity program claimed the life of one person on Thursday.

The German official said the aim was to bring Greece’s debt down to about 120 percent of economic output, from more than 180 percent it is set to reach next year. That would most likely involve the banks taking a bigger hit on their Greek bond holdings, hence the need for a widespread recapitalization plan.

In nearly identical statements Thursday night, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked Greece to immediately enter into discussions with private creditors on bringing its debt down to a sustainable level.

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Banks and homebuilders pulled the stock market higher Tuesday, overriding early jitters about a potential stalemate in Europe over a bailout for Greece.

Bank of America Corp. rose 7 percent in early afternoon trading after it beat Wall Street earnings expectations for third quarter thanks to accounting gains and the sale of a stake in a Chinese bank. Goldman Sachs rose 2 percent, even after reporting only its second quarterly loss since going public in 1999.

There was also positive news in the housing sector, which has rattled banks since the real estate collapse.

A survey of U.S. homebuilders showed they are less pessimistic about the struggling market. The National Association of Home Builders said its index of builder sentiment this month rose from 14 to 18, the highest level since May 2010. But any reading below 50 reflects overall pessimism.

Building company stocks jumped on the news. D. R. Horton Inc. soared 9 percent. Lennar Corp. and PulteGroup Inc. both gained more than 8 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 54 points, or 0.5 percent, to 11,451 at 12:15 Eastern. International Business Machines tugged on the Dow average, falling 5 percent, the most of any Dow stock by far.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 10, or 0.8 percent, to 1,210. The Nasdaq composite rose 14, or 0.6 percent, to 2,629.5

Markets wavered in early morning trading after some disappointing corporate earnings reports and concerns that France and Germany may not reach an agreement on additional support for Greece.

Moody’s said late Monday that the stable outlook for France’s top-notch credit rating is under pressure. On Tuesday, that country’s finance minister said that the French economy will likely grow a rate of less than 1.5 percent next year. France is Europe’s second-largest economy.

Investors were troubled by reports that France and Germany remain divided on a plan to provide more support for Greece. An agreement between the two countries, the two largest economies that use the euro, is seen as the bedrock for a rescue package that can pass all 17 countries that share the euro.

The Greek government is widely expected to go through some kind of default or restructuring of its debt. European banks could face big losses on Greek government bonds and that could ripple overseas, jolting global credit markets.

Tuesday brought full day of corporate earnings reports in the U.S.

UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s fell 4 percent after its third-quarter profit dipped. The country’s largest health insurer by sales said medical costs climbed and more patients visited their doctors’ office.

Coca-Cola Co. lost 0.6 percent after narrowly beating Wall Street’s earnings estimates. Johnson & Johnson rose 0.2 percent after posting a 6 percent in decline in third-quarter profit, roughly in line with analyst expectations.

Apple Inc. and Intel will report their results from the last quarter after the market closes.

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