Financial News: Asian shares fall as economic gloom deepens

Asia-Pacific stocks fell steeply on Thursday as anxieties about the US economy and the global outlook heightened amid worsening data and the prospects for the US s carmakers.The Nikkei 225 dropped 4.3 per cent to 7,915.63, while the broader Topix lost 3.8 per cent to 795.88. Trade balance data in Japan showed that exports sank 7.7 per cent in October from a year earlier, confirming existing worries about the outlook for Japan s economy, which is already in recession.