TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market slipped into negative territory after opening higher on Friday following the overnight gains on Wall Street. Investors turned cautious as they await the release of China's January trade data and the U.S. jobs data for January later in the day.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 41.57 points or 0.17 percent to 23,832.02 after rising to a high of 23,943.45 in early trades. Japanese stocks surged on Thursday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank is gaining 6 percent following reports that activist hedge fund Elliott Management has built a stake worth more than $2.5 billion in the Japanese conglomerate. Meanwhile, Fast Retailing is declining almost 1 percent.
Among tech stocks, Advantest is lower by almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is down 0.3 percent.
The major exporters are also lower on a stronger yen. Panasonic is lower by almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is losing more than 1 percent, Canon is declining 0.4 and Sony is down 0.2 percent.
Among auto stocks, Honda Motor is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota Motor is down almost 1 percent.
In the oil sector, Japan Petroleum is declining 1 percent, while Inpex is edging up 0.1 percent after crude oil prices rose modestly overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Olympus Corp. is rising 12 percent on upbeat earnings results, and IHI Corp. is advancing 4 percent.
Conversely, Terumo Corp. and Marui Group are losing 5 percent each, while Fujikura and Yamaha Corp. are lower by more than 4 percent each. Yamaha Corp. reported a decline in profit for the nine-month period and lowered its full-year outlook.
In economic news, Japan is scheduled to release preliminary December figures for its leading and coincident indexes as well as December figures for household spending and labor cash earnings today.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 109 yen-range on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed at record highs on Thursday following news that China plans to cut tariffs on approximately $75 billion worth of U.S. goods in half. The tariffs reductions, effective on February 14, will coincide with the U.S. move to halve tariffs on $120 billion worth of Chinese goods as part of the phase one trade deal that was signed last month. Buying interest was somewhat subdued, however, as some traders seemed reluctant to continuing picking up stocks following the rally seen over the three previous sessions.
The Dow climbed 88.92 points or 0.3 percent to 29,379.77, the Nasdaq advanced 63.47 points or 0.7 percent to 9,572.15 and the S&P 500 rose 11.09 points or 0.3 percent to 3,345.78.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on Thursday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.7 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices edged higher on Thursday, lifted by reports that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC proposes to increase production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March ended up $0.20, or about 0.4 percent, at $50.95 a barrel.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2020 AFX News
