TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell Tuesday morning, tracking losses on Wall street, as banks and some major exporters including Toyota and Panasonic struggled under a strong yen.
Traders moved into the Japanese currency — widely seen as a safe investment — after G20 finance ministers failed to renew a longstanding anti-protectionist pledge at a weekend meeting, fuelling concerns about international trade.
Markets were also left guessing about the pace of future Federal Reserve rate hikes after Chicago Fed President Charles Evans suggested Monday there could be more hikes this year but Minneapolis boss Neel Kashkari said the policy board should take its time.
Last week, the US central bank raised its benchmark interest rate a quarter point, the second increase since President Donald Trump’s election and only the third in a decade.
“The key is how President Trump will react to rate hikes,” Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities, said in a commentary.
“It is unknown right now if the president will endorse rate hikes or not.” Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.27 percent, or 51.97 points, to 19,469.62 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section issues slipped 0.10 percent, or 1.51 points, to 1,564.34.
The dollar edged up to 112.71 yen from 112.50 yen in New York on Monday but was still well down from 113.33 on Friday in Tokyo.
A strong yen is negative for Japanese exporters as it erodes their repatriated profits.
Japanese financial markets were closed Monday for a national holiday.
In share trading, Toyota slipped 0.10 percent to 6,370 yen, while Panasonic dropped 0.31 percent to 1,252.5 yen. Sony was flat at 3,639 yen.
Banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 1.59 percent to 746.9 yen. Rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group shed 0.44 percent to end the morning at 4,283 yen.
Nintendo jumped 3.06 percent to 26,365 yen on reported strong demand for its new Switch console.
