Tokyo (awp / afp) – The Tokyo Stock Exchange started down sharply on Friday, between health concerns in Japan and inflationary fears in the United States, which weighed heavily on American technology stocks on the Nasdaq index the day before.
The flagship Nikkei index dropped 1.32% to 28,111.90 points around 01:00 GMT and the broader Topix index fell 1.55% to 1,974.43 points.
New employment and price data in the United States released on Thursday further convinced investors that the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) was going to unleash heavy artillery against inflation this year, a perilous exercise for Economic Growth.
“The possibility of four rate hikes (by the Fed, editor’s note) this year is increasing”, even five, with a first possible increase in March, observed analyst Edward Moya in a note from OANDA.
On the side of values
FAST RETAILING REASSURES: the title of Fast Retailing jumped 6.81% to 63,170 yen, taking the opposite view of the general negative trend in Tokyo.
The Japanese ready-to-wear giant with its flagship brand Uniqlo published record results on Thursday that exceeded expectations for its first quarter of 2021/22 (last September-November). Uniqlo’s dynamic activity in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, excluding China and Japan, offset poor performance in these last two markets.
SALE IN VIEW AT HITACHI: the industrial and technological conglomerate Hitachi (-0.33% to 6,863 yen) is preparing to sell half of its shares to the large Japanese trading company Itochu (-2.61% to 3,505 yen) in its separately listed subsidiary Hitachi Construction (-16.17% to 3,005 yen), one of the world’s leading players in the construction machinery niche, Japanese public television channel NHK reported on Thursday. The three companies confirmed that discussions were ongoing.
On the side of currencies and oil
The yen continued to rise against the dollar as the day before, at the rate of one dollar for 114.10 yen around 00:50 GMT against 114.20 yen Thursday at 21:00 GMT.
The Japanese currency also climbed against the euro, which was worth 130.63 yen against 130.81 yen on Thursday.
On the other hand, the euro was almost stable against the dollar, at the rate of one euro for 1.1453 dollars against 1.1455 dollars the day before at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
The oil market was down slightly: around 00:45 GMT the price of a US barrel of WTI fell 0.45% to 81.75 dollars.
etb/cn