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0608 GMT: Tokyo stocks continued their slide throughout the afternoon as investors began to contemplate the perils of a major global downturn – a far worse fate for Asia than the potential failure of the $700 billion US financial rescue package. The Nikkei closed 213 points lower, led chiefly by exporters, as economists warned that Asia was now facing a significantly worse slump than previously built into their calculations. The Nikkei ended at a three-year low of 11,154 points and several strategists said that the psychologically important 11,000 level would look increasingly vulnerable in coming days as more September economic data drops in from the US.

0305GMT: Hong Kong shares looking for an early drop of nearly 1 per cent amid swirling fears of a worsening property price crisis in China and potential trouble for some of the banks.

0304GMT: Bond market traders report solid buying of US treasuries – the safe-haven choice when further misery is expected on global markets. Gold continues to see buying on the same rationale. Asian trading in US stock market futures suggests that Wall Street is going to head the same way when it wakes up later today. The Dow future contract was down 0.75 per cent and futures traders appear to expect an even worse rout for the Nasdaq.

0300GMT: Tokyo stocks close for the lunch break 120 points lower in a broad sell-off led by the automakers on those terrible US statistics. Korean shares also slide heavily. Traders blame the sell-off on the “so what?” factor in the aftermath of the Senate vote: the US financial system is still without its $700 billion bailout package and the turmoil is still battering credit markets and making interbank lending highly problematic. Rising fears that the credit issues will devastate the US corporate sector hit Japanese machinery makers.

0242GMT: Bank of Japan injects 1 trillion yen of short-term cash into the Tokyo money market in its 12 consecutive emergency attempt to help uncork the credit crisis and allow interbank lending to begin again.

0240GMT: As investors grapple with the implications of the Senate vote, more solid selling pressure lands on Tokyo markets from the US: new car sales in America fell below 1 million units per month in September for the first time in nearly 16 years. For Toyota – the bellwether of the Japanese economy and the global auto industry – the month saw the biggest sales drop since July 1987. Even sales of fuel efficient hybrid cars were down 15 per cent as US consumers postponed purchases and financing deals dried up.

02.27GMT: Bond and equity markets across Asia remain in limbo – few investors feel confident that the passage of the bill through the senate is any guarantee that it will pass through the lower house and Tokyo stocks slide once more into negative territory. The Nikkei is now down 21 points. Singapore commodity trading sees crude oil jump $1 dollar to above $100 per barrel and gold climb $1.85 to $870 per ounce.

0219GMT: The economic rescue plan bill passes in US senate, overcoming its first major hurdle. Tokyo stocks rise tentatively, with the Nikkei now 16 points in positive territory. Most major Asian currencies continue to slip against the US dollar.

0200GMT: Voting begins in Washington and nerves start to show in Asia. Opening-bell confidence in the smooth passage of the US bailout bill evaporates, leaving extreme volatility in its wake an instantly killing early gains in Tokyo stocks. A 60-point rise in the Nikkei is reversed in the space of a few minutes’ trading, to put the index in negative territory for the session, before lurching higher again.

0150GMT: Tokyo bond trading slows to a snail’s pace as tension mounts ahead of the US vote. Market analysts at Daiwa securities say the freeze is likely to continue into the afternoon and the first Japanese Government Bond (JGB) auction of the second fiscal half of 2008. Japan’s Ministry of Finance is offering Y1.9 trillion (pounds 8.5 billion) but the usual slew of buying by Wall Street and the City could now be minimal.

0146GMT: After 46 minutes of trading Tokyo stocks hold steady, but a sell-off begins in major auto stocks. Brokers at Nomura question how long it will be before Toyota – widely viewed as the most robust of global carmakers – will be forced to trim its full-year forecasts amid worldwide slowdown and production cuts.

0130GMT: Asian trading in the Won sees the Korean currency continue its slide against the US dollar despite the worries swirling around the US economy. Korean authorities appear poised to intervene once more to prop up the won – a pre-market speech by the Vice Finance Minister suggests they are sufficiently rattled - but increasingly bearish editorials in Korean newspapers suggest that the government may not have the foreign exchange reserves required to keep fighting a losing battle.

0115GMT: Tokyo FX market sees light buying of the US dollar against the yen as corporate thirst for the greenback remains high. Dollar rises a “big figure” to the lower 106 range against the yen.

0100GMT: It is 9am in Tokyo and the Stock Exchange opens nervous but positive: extremely light volumes trade as dealing rooms remain glued to news flow from Washington. The Nikkei climbs 60 points higher in the first 15 minutes of market action. Some bolder investors buying on the assumption that the US bailout bill will pass in its revised form and fears of a 1930s-style depression will subside.

1230GMT: While Wall Street closed five hours before the key Senate vote on the $700 billion bail-out scheme, fears that the rescue package may not be approved paralyzed New York's stock and credit markets on Wednesday.

While the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank as much as 200 points in morning trading, by the end of trading, the index of America's biggest shares closed down just 20 points at 10,831.

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