Tokyo (awp / afp) – The Tokyo Stock Exchange fell sharply on Friday morning, following in the footsteps of Wall Street, which had finished at half mast the day before, despite the easing of oil prices, in the face of concerns related to the war in Ukraine and US inflation.
The flagship Nikkei index, after its 4% rebound the day before, lost 2.25% to 25,114.56 points around 1:40 a.m. GMT, while the broader Topix index fell 1.98% to 1,793.89 points.
“Japanese stocks are expected to fall” in the wake of Wall Street, because “of the sharp rise in US inflation and the lack of progress after negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers”, commented Toshiyuki Kanayama in a Monex note.
The New York Stock Exchange faltered on Thursday, after the CPI price index showed US inflation at 7.9% in February, the highest since January 1982. The yield on US government bonds at 10-year bond jumped above 2% as a result, for the first time since February 25.
The heads of Russian and Ukrainian diplomacy for their part failed Thursday to agree on a ceasefire in Ukraine during their first meeting since the start of the Russian army offensive.
The yen also fell on Friday to its lowest against the dollar in more than five years, a move favorable to Japanese exporting companies, while the easing of oil prices accelerated a trend linked to the optimism on the economy observed since the beginning. 2021.
Around 1:45 a.m., the greenback was trading for 116.25 yen (against 116.14 yen the day before), a level not seen since January 2017.
The Japanese currency also fell against the euro, which was worth 127.79 yen against 127.59 yen the day before.
The euro traded for 1.0994 dollars, against 1.0986 dollars Thursday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
Oil prices, which had fallen on Thursday, rose again on Friday in Asia: around 01:30 GMT the price of a barrel of American WTI regained 0.57% to 106.62 dollars and that of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea rose by 0.16% to $109.50.
mac/ybl