World stocks tumbled Thursday as hopes began to fade for a quick agreement among U.S. leaders to avoid a "fiscal cliff" that could derail the world's biggest economy, AP reported. Unless President Barack Obama and Congress reach a compromise, a series of expiring tax cuts and across-the-board spending reductions will take effect in 2013 at a cost of about $800 billion. Economists say that could knock the U.S. economy back into recession. European stocks fell in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.5 percent to 5,692.84. Germany's DAX fell 0.5 percent to 7,063.42. France's CAC-40 shed 0.5 percent to 3,381.69. U.S. stock futures rose ahead of the release of several manufacturing surveys that some analysts said could show a modest improvement in activity in November. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.2 percent to 12,563 and S&P 500 futures added 0.3 percent to 1,357. Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 1.6 percent to 21,108.93. South Korea's Kospi shed 1.2 percent to 1,870.72. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9 percent to 4,349.20. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand also fell. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.2 percent to 2,030.29, the lowest close in more than a month. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 1.6 percent to 805.91. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks were kept buoyant by reports that Japanese parliamentary elections have been set for Dec. 16 and a weakening yen. The Nikkei 225 index rallied 1.9 percent to close at 8,829.72 after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reportedly pledged to dissolve the parliament by Friday if the opposition agreed to key reforms. "Japan is up today because of the announcement of an election date in the hope that there may be some more stimulatory policies as a result of that," said Peter Elston, strategist at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore.
