SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian shares edged down on Tuesday as fears about the ability of politicians on either side of the Atlantic to tackle huge debt burdens sapped investors’ confidence in the outlook for Western economies.

The yen weakened as safe-haven demand for the Japanese currency slackened, but the dollar held on to gains and equity volumes were thin, indicating that risk aversion remained high.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian shares fell on Tuesday as fears about the ability of politicians on either side of the Atlantic to tackle huge debt burdens sapped investors’ confidence in riskier assets.

The failure on Monday of a “super committee” of U.S. lawmakers to reach agreement on a deficit cutting plan was another blow to market confidence hammered for weeks by Europe’s inexorably worsening sovereign debt crisis.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks rose on Monday and the euro edged up on hopes that new technocratic leaders in Italy and Greece will take decisive action to save their indebted nations from bankruptcy and fend off a wider financial meltdown in the euro zone.

Commodities rose, credit spreads tightened and safe haven government bond yields climbed, all suggesting improved risk appetite, but the renewed confidence faces a big test later on Monday, when Italy is scheduled to hold an auction of 5-year bonds.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks and the euro rose on Monday on hopes that new leaders in Italy and Greece will take decisive action to save their indebted nations from bankruptcy and fend off a wider financial meltdown in the euro zone.

Italy’s president appointed former European Commissioner Mario Monti on Sunday to head a new government, while in Greece Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank policymaker, has been sworn in as prime minister.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian shares rebounded modestly on Friday and the euro clung to tentative gains, after brighter corporate news lifted U.S. stocks and debt-ladened Italy was able to fund itself at a bond auction.

Credit spreads tightened and copper prices rose as investors’ appetite for riskier assets improved somewhat, but caution remained to the fore amid a European debt crisis that appeared no closer to resolution.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian shares rebounded modestly Friday and the euro clung to tentative gains, after brighter corporate news lifted U.S. stocks and debt-ladened Italy was able to fund itself at a bond auction.

But investors remained cautious amid a European debt crisis that appeared no closer to resolution, keeping a lid on equity gains and pushing other riskier assets such a commodities lower.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell around 3 percent on Thursday after soaring Italian borrowing costs stoked fears that the debt crisis in the euro zone’s third biggest economy will overwhelm its financial defences, raising the risk of a break-up of the currency area.

The euro was steady, after suffering its biggest daily drop in 15 months on Wednesday, while industrial commodities such as copper and oil softened on worries of renewed recession. European shares were set to extend the previous day’s losses.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell sharply on Thursday after soaring Italian borrowing costs stoked fears the debt crisis in the euro zone’s third biggest economy will overwhelm its financial defences, raising the risk of a break-up of the currency area.

The euro was steady, after suffering its biggest daily drop in 15 months on Wednesday, while industrial commodities such as copper and oil softened on worries of renewed recession.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell Thursday after soaring Italian borrowing costs stoked fears the euro zone’s third biggest economy will be forced to seek a bailout, overwhelming the bloc’s finances and raising the risk of a break-up of the currency area.

Italian 10-year bond yields rose above 7 percent on Wednesday, a level most market economists consider unsustainable for financing debt of more than 2 trillion euros ($2.7 trillion).

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian shares, the euro, commodities and the Australian dollar all fell on Thursday as fears that Europe’s debt crisis could unleash financial chaos prompted investors to shed riskier assets in favour of the relative safety of the dollar.

U.S. stock futures also fell, retreating from a Wall Street rebound on Wednesday, as leaders of the world’s biggest economies began arriving in France for a G20 summit set to be dominated by the threat of a Greek exit from the euro zone.