Asia Reacts to Washington Debt Battle

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average is down 0.6%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 114 points in screen trade . "The trend is for a lower U.S. dollar in Asia, as markets are worried about the negatives for the U.S. economy given the default risk," . The safety of the U.S. dollar is questionable, and it's likely a slow drift down against the basket of Asian currencies."  Philip Wee, a currency economist at DBS Business Secretary Vince Cable told BBC , "right-wing nutters in the U.S. Congress were holding up a deal to prevent a catastrophic default, posing a greater threat to the global financial system than the euro zone, which has been grappling with a debt crisis of its own".