TOKYO: Tokyo stocks ended sharply lower on Thursday after Wall Street was weighed down by mixed corporate earnings and high US Treasury yields, while the yen fell to a year-low.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 2.14 percent, or 668.14 points, to end at 30,601.78, while the broader Topix index was down 1.34 percent, or 30.15 points, at 2,224.25.
The dollar fetched 150.67 yen, against 150.08 yen in New York on Wednesday.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.3 percent lower at 33,035.93, the broad-based S&P shed 1.4 percent, while the tech-rich Nasdaq plunged 2.4 percent.
In Japan, too, investors were “spooked by the resurgence of the US bond yields,” Daiwa Securities said.
Tokyo shares end higher on see-saw day
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note remained elevated after recently breaching the five percent level for the first time in 16 years, exacerbating worries that US interest rates will stay higher for longer.
This in turn sent the yen to a year-low, again breaking the important 150 threshold, which has previously prompted government intervention.
The Tokyo market took cues from sharp falls on Wall Street, where “the (tech-rich) Nasdaq hit a five-month low, and negative reactions to earnings announcements continued in after-hours trading,” IwaiCosmo Securities said.
Among major shares in Tokyo, SoftBank plunged 4.16 percent to 6,044 yen, Sony Group dove 2.81 percent to 12,245 yen and Toyota shed 1.72 percent to 2,594.5 yen.
Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing trimmed 2.55 percent to 33,140 yen.
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