TOKYO – Tokyo stocks opened lower today, extending a rout on Wall Street, where investors are disappointed by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s response to inflation fears.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.65%, or 188.96 points, at 28,741.15 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.38%, or 7.25 points, to 1,877.49.
“Investors were discouraged by the rise in US 10-year Treasury yields,” said Mizuho Securities.
“However, after a certain amount of sell-offs, bargain-hunting purchases will likely support the market”, partly helped by a cheaper yen, it added.
Investors are also monitoring China’s National People’s Congress, which opens today, said analysts.
The US dollar fetched ¥107.85 (RM4.07) in early Asian trade, against ¥107.95 in New York and ¥107.12 in Tokyo late yesterday.
Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing dropped 4.54% to 94,720 after a brokerage firm revised down its evaluation of the shares.
Sony was down 2.08% at ¥10,815, and Canon was off 2.98% at ¥2,212.
Automakers were mixed, with Toyota trading down 1.40% at ¥7,811, while Nissan was up 0.39% at ¥592.6.
Honda was down 0.10% after it said it will launch the world’s first Level 3 self-driving cars. Vehicle autonomy is classified along a scale of 0 to 5, with 5 indicating essentially total autonomy.
On Wall Street, all three major stock indices closed lower on investors’ disappointment in Powell’s speech, despite the central bank chair saying price increases are not an immediate concern.
Markets want more, and the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes spiked to 1.55%, the highest this week and near the peak of the past year – igniting a stock sell-off with the Dow ending down 1.1% at 30,924.14. – AFP, March 5, 2021
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