TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell Monday as a stronger yen discouraged investors who are already cautious ahead of US President Donald Trump's policy speech to Congress.
Markets are keen to see details of Trump's spending plans as well as proposals for tax reform, with uncertainty over their timing and size weighing on the greenback in recent weeks.
Trump will address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
"We are not sure what Trump's policies are going to be and whether he's going to implement them at all," Kumar Palghat, a portfolio manager at Kapstream Capital, told Bloomberg TV.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has told US media that Trump will propose a budget designed to bring long-term growth by cutting taxes.
But he also warned that growth might not hit the four percent Trump promised.
Some investors are doubting whether Trump -- who has promised a "phenomenal" tax plan -- can deliver what the market wants.
"Investors are now worried Trump's 'phenomenal' tax plan won't be something that beats market expectations," Shinichi Yamamoto, a senior strategist at Okasan Securities, told Bloomberg News.
"Sentiment is jittery over the odds of Trump's fiscal budget falling short of what's hoped for."
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.91 percent, or 176.07 points, to end the day at 19,107.47. The Topix index of all first-section issues fell 1.04 percent, or 16.14 points, to 1,534.00.
On currency markets the dollar bought 112.20 yen, little changed from 112.13 yen in New York on Friday but down from levels a week ago.
A stronger yen hurts the profitability of major exporters and tends to hit demand for their shares.
Revised fourth-quarter US growth data, the Federal Reserve's regional economies Beige Book report, and a string of Japanese data, including factory output and inflation, are in focus this week.
Toyota shares fell 0.65 percent to 6,406 yen, bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group dropped 2.57 percent to 738.9 yen, and troubled Toshiba dropped 3.62 percent to 215.8 yen.
Sony shed 0.92 percent to finish at 3,454 yen, despite saying it has sold about 915,000 units of its PlayStation virtual reality system as of this month and is on track to meet a one million unit sales goal by April.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.