TOKYO: Tokyo's key Nikkei 225 index quickly slipped into negative territory Friday as investors eyed corporate earnings reports.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.91 percent or 261.67 points at 28,558.42 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged down 0.87 percent or 17.34 points to 1,982.32.
Investors were maintaining "a wait-and-see attitude" ahead of Japan's general elections on Sunday and after shares in Amazon and Apple dropped following the US market's close, senior strategist Yoshihiro Ito of Okasan Online Securities said in a note.
Tokyo stocks close lower on weak earnings
Both firms announced billions of dollars in quarterly profits, but supply chain bottlenecks and the global chip shortage dented the tech giants, which have been riding a pandemic-stoked boom.
Investors are also closely watching earnings reports in Japan, analysts said.
In Tokyo, Sony was up 2.33 percent at 13,195 after it upgraded its full-year sales and profit forecast.
Takeda Pharmaceutical was up 2.31 percent at 3,238 yen after the firm said it would buy back up to 2.2 percent of shares for 100 billion yen ($880 million).
ANA Holdings was down 0.30 percent at 2,651 yen ahead of its earnings report due after market close.
The dollar fetched 113.66 yen in early Asian trade, against 113.57 yen in New York late Thursday.
Japan's jobless rate stood at 2.8 percent in September, unchanged from the previous month, according to government data released before the opening bell.
The data did not prompt a strong market reaction.
On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.7 percent at 35,730.48 and the broad-based S&P gained 1.0 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.4 percent to hit a new all-time high ahead of Apple and Amazon's results.
Comments
Comments are closed.