U.S. Mad Cow Case Rattles Asian Markets

The first U.S. case of mad cow disease rattled Asian investors Wednesday, while the dollar hovered near recent lows in thin holiday trade, failing to take advantage of broadly upbeat U.S. economic data.

Japan and South Korea halted imports of U.S. beef after officials said mad cow disease, which devastated the British agriculture industry in the 1990s, had been found in a cow in Washington state.

The news sent shares of McDonald's Corp (MCD) down 3.7 percent in after-hours trade and analysts expected beef and grain prices to fall sharply when trade resumed Wednesday on fears about the impact on America's $27 billion cattle industry. Shares in Japan edged down 0.03 percent to 10,369.85 by the midday break as the mad cow scare hurt McDonald's Holdings Co. Ltd. and Prima Meat Packers Ltd. Japan is the largest importer of U.S. beef.

``The mad cow news is hitting some individual shares, but any larger impact is still unclear,'' said Hiroaki Kuramochi, head of global equities at Credit Lyonnais.

Japan's McDonald's Holdings fell more than three percent, while Prima dropped over four percent. The disease has killed more than 100 people in Britain and Europe, while there have been no confirmed cases in Japan...