By Michael Patterson Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Emerging-market stocks fell for a fourth day, their longest losing streak in more than two months, as Dubai struggled to restructure debt and Greece’s bonds faced a further downgrade. The yen and gold rose. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index declined 0.6 percent at 1:30 p.m. in London as Dubai’s equity gauge dropped 6.4 percent. Greece’s Athens Stock Exchange General Index sank 2.6 percent. European shares fluctuated between gains and losses, while futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.6 percent as higher oil prices lifted energy companies. Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said there is “absolutely” no chance of a default as the country’s bonds slumped the most in a decade, while the cost of credit-default swaps on Dubai’s state-controlled DP World implied a 33 percent risk that the port company will renege on debt. Japan’s gross domestic product rose at less than one-third the pace initially reported in the three months ended Sept. 30, spurring concern the global economic recovery may falter as budget deficits climb. “A financial crisis is like a disease, it spreads,” Philip Gisdakis, the head of credit strategy at UniCredit SpA in Munich, wrote in a research note today. “Although Greece is small enough of a problem that it must be bailed out, the risk is that it will not only be Greece that will need support.” Greek Bonds Greek 10-year government bonds slid for a fifth day, their longest-losing streaking since May, driving the yield up 16 basis points to 5.49 percent. Chris Pryce, director of sovereign and international public finance at Fitch Ratings in London, said today in a Bloomberg Television interview he’s not convinced the nation will avoid a debt default as its budget deficit rises. The Dubai Financial Market General Index plunged for a third day, wiping out its 2009 advance, as state-controlled Dubai World planned asset sales and Moody’s Investors Service downgraded six Dubai borrowers. The ADX General Index in Abu Dhabi, the wealthiest of the seven sheikdoms that comprise the United Arab Emirates, lost 2.8 percent. Greece’s ASE Index fell for a third day. National Bank of Greece SA, the nation’s biggest, slid 5 percent in Athens. EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA, the second-largest, tumbled 6.9 percent. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.1 percent as chemical makers and travel companies advanced. The index earlier lost as much as 0.9 percent. Japan Stocks Japanese stocks fell the most in eight days after a government report showed the economy grew at an annual 1.3 percent pace in the third quarter, slower than the 4.8 percent in preliminary figures last month. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.3 percent as the MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.8 percent. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s largest bank by market value, tumbled 5.2 percent in Tokyo. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., the country’s biggest maker of heavy machinery, sank 2.5 percent. The yen strengthened 0.3 percent versus the dollar as investors sought the Japanese currency as a refuge. The gain in U.S. stock-index futures signaled the S&P 500 may snap a two-day drop. Exxon Mobil Corp., the biggest U.S. oil company, advanced 0.5 percent in early New York trading as oil climbed above $73 a barrel. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities tumbled 1 percent yesterday, paring its rally since March 9 to 61 percent. The measure is valued at about 22 times its companies’ reported operating earnings, near the highest since 2002, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Geithner Plan Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner plans to tell Congress that the Obama administration will extend the $700 billion financial-rescue program until next October, according to people familiar with the matter. U.K. government bonds erased declines after Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said gilt sales will rise by 5.1 billion pounds ($8.3 billion) in the year through March 2010. The yield on the 10-year gilt fell 4 basis points to 3.65 percent, after earlier adding as much as 6 basis points. The cost of hedging against losses on Dubai sovereign debt surged 47.5 basis points to 592, according to CMA DataVision prices for credit-default swaps. Contracts on Greece jumped 12 to 221, the highest level since March, and swaps on the U.K. climbed 1 to 78, to their most expensive price since July. Deutsche Bank AG, the bond trustee of Dubai World’s property unit Nakheel PJSC, is seeking clarity from the issuer about its plans to restructure debt, according to two investors who participated in a conference call with the bank today. The call finished without any discussion of adopting specific recommendations, said the investors, who declined to be identified because the discussion was private. Nakheel’s $3.52 billion of Islamic bonds due Dec. 14 dropped 1 percent, extending yesterday’s 10 percent slide to head for a record-low close at 47 cents on the dollar, according to Citigroup Inc. Gold for immediate delivery rose $15.70 to $1,143.82 an ounce in London. Crude oil climbed, snapping a five-day decline, after an industry report showed a fall in U.S. crude inventories. The American Petroleum Institute said crude inventories fell by 5.82 million barrels last week. Crude oil for January delivery rose as high as $73.87 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The U.S. Energy Department will release its weekly report on inventories later today in Washington. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Patterson in London at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net.

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