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Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday on the back of gains on Wall Street ahead of US inflation data later this week. online news
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.40 percent, or 130.45 points, at 32,385.01 in early trade, while the broader Topix index added 0.42 percent, or 9.63 points, to 2,293.56.
Toshiba was up 0.52 percent at 4,608 yen after it said a previously announced scheme to take the troubled Japanese conglomerate private in a deal worth around $14 billion will launch on Tuesday.
SoftBank Group was up 1.59 percent at 7,027 yen, ahead of its first quarter earnings report due after the closing bell.
“Japanese shares were expected to start with gains following rallies in US shares,” after New York Federal Reserve chief John Williams “showed his views that the Fed could start cutting rates if inflation slows”, senior market analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama of brokerage Monex said in a note.
The dollar fetched 142.86 yen in early Asian trade, against 142.47 yen in New York late Monday.
“Northern hemisphere summer holidays and a lack of data has seen markets treading water ahead of US CPI (consumer price index) figures on Thursday,” Tapas Strickland, senior analyst of National Australia Bank, said in a note.
Japan’s household spending dropped a real 4.2 percent year-on-year in June, the fourth consecutive monthly decline, according to data released by the internal affairs ministry.
Toyota was up 0.55 percent at 2,457.5 yen and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing was up 0.56 percent at 33,980 yen, but chip-testing equipment maker Advantest was down 1.98 percent at 18,270 yen.
kh/stu/aha
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Hong Kong Stocks Sink in Opening Trade
Hong Kong stocks dropped at the open Tuesday, despite a rally on Wall Street, with traders still fretting over another Federal Reserve interest rate hike to tame inflation.
The Hang Seng Index sank 1.17 percent, or 229.37 points, to 19,308.55.
The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.25 percent, or 8.11 points, to 3,260.72, while the Shenzhen Composite Index on China’s second exchange eased 0.13 percent, or 2.67 points, to 2,055.15.
dan/lb
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economy online news
Notes from APS Radio News
In recent weeks both The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported on China’s economic problems, for example, following lockdowns of a few years ago.
Exports, China’s strength, declined because of lowered demand that had been caused by lockdowns in Europe and the US.
At the same time, according to those newspapers, the government’s increasing regulation of hi-tech firms has weakened the private sector in favor of state-owned enterprises.
As well, after years of lavish spending on infrastructure, local and national levels of public and private debt have increased substantially.
Observers say that China’s level of annual growth rates of ten or fifteen years ago are unlikely to return anytime soon.
