Japan stocks dropped Monday because of growing fears of U.S. economic slowdown and lagging Asian markets.

Wall Street fears for increased last week by the earnings results of US bellwether, General Electric, while Asian markets dropped as investors began to worry about higher interest rates.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average slipped 406.22 points, or 3.05 percent, from Friday to 12,917.51. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was decreased 32.38 points, or 2.53 percent, to 1,246.24.

The TSE's Second Section index was down 12.86 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,721.96 on a volume of 24.69 million shares.

Except for mining issue, almost all the issues declined. Among all the TSE first section issues, 225 increased and 1,455 decreased. The trading volume reached 1,507.77 million stocks or 1,868.3 billion yen. The Japanese currency is being traded in the level of 100 yen per a U.S. dollar. The yen is getting strong against dollar and that made export-oriented issues prices decline Monday.

After less than expected GE earnings reports, uncertainty over U.S. corporate performance increased and that reinforced fears for the real economy, said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at the equity information department of Shinko Securities Co., according to Nikkei.

Traders said it seems difficult to buy because in just a days earnings reports for Japan and U.S. companies will emerge, according to Kabushiki Shimbun.

Japan Nikkei 225 General electric Tokyo Stock Exchange