Tokyo (awp / afp) – The Tokyo Stock Exchange was hesitant on Thursday morning, after Wall Street closed in disarray the day before in the wake of Fed announcements in line with investor expectations but not very precise on the timetable.
After oscillating between green and red at the start of the session, the Nikkei index of 225 Japanese star stocks fell 0.38% to 26,907.91 points around 01:00 GMT and the broader Topix index fell 0.15% to 1,889.08 points.
The US central bank (Fed) on Wednesday signaled its intention to raise its key rates in March, as markets expected.
Jerome Powell, the head of the institution, however, remained evasive on the timing and volume of the reduction in monetary support, which tensed investors.
The announcement “was not enough to remove all the market uncertainty” about the expected monetary tightening, commented Masahiro Ichikawa of Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, quoted by the Bloomberg agency.
On the side of values
TOYOTA: the disruptions linked to the pandemic continue to affect the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota (+0.9% to 2,241.5 yen), which announced on Wednesday new temporary interruptions to its production in Japan in the coming days, facing a shortage of parts.
On the side of currencies and oil
The yen was almost stable against the dollar, at a rate of one dollar for 114.67 yen around 01:00 GMT against 114.64 yen on Wednesday.
The Japanese currency hardly changed either against the euro, which was worth 128.83 yen against 128.85 yen the day before.
One euro was also trading for 1.1235 dollars, against 1.1240 dollars on Wednesday.
Oil fell back: around 00:50 GMT the price of a barrel of American WTI fell 0.1% to 87.26 dollars.
mac/mav