TOKYO – Tokyo stocks opened lower today in subdued trade after a mixed close on Wall Street, with eyes shifting to key United States economic indicators due later this week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.71%, or 205.96 points, at 28,842.06 in early trade, while the broader Topix index lost 0.82%, or 16.04 points, to 1,949.63.
“Japanese investors are seen taking a wait-and-see attitude, even though rallies in the US high-tech sector are offering some support” as they await American manufacturing and payroll data due this week, said Mizuho Securities in a note.
The New York market was “very quiet... ahead of US payrolls on Friday”, said Tapas Strickland, senior analyst at National Australia Bank, in a commentary.
“There was no top-tier data to drive, while central bank commentary mainly echoed recent remarks,” he said, referring to a speech by Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond president Thomas Barkin.
The dollar fetched ¥110.56 (RM4.16) in early Asian trade against ¥110.60 in New York late yesterday.
In Tokyo, SoftBank Group was down 1.70% at ¥7,790 after a report said the investment giant is slashing jobs at its global robotics business.
Among others, Toyota was down 0.87% at ¥9,756, Hitachi was off 0.63% at ¥6,448, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial was down 1.07% at ¥3,879 and Takeda Pharmaceutical was off 1.28% at ¥3,698.
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 each finished at records on the continued resurgence of technology shares, while weaknesses in financial and industrial equities meant the Dow closed down 0.4% at 34,283.27.
Japan’s jobless rate last month worsened slightly to 3.0% from 2.8% in April, according to official data released by the Internal Affairs Ministry before the opening bell.
The data did not prompt a strong market reaction. – AFP, June 29, 2021
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