Japanese markets fell today as the Nikkei 225 came under pressure from lower US stocks, with selling spreading across technology shares. Bonds rose as buying prevailed, while the yen’s recent strengthening paused in the foreign-exchange market.
In Japanese markets on the 6th, the Nikkei 225 fell back, at one point dropping more than ¥1,000 and erasing the gains made through the previous session. Selling led by AI and semiconductor-related stocks, with the performance of technology shares emerging as the market’s focus. The yen traded in the upper ¥157 range, while dollar-yen continued to move sideways.
Among individual stocks, Advantest and SoftBank Group, which had surged the previous day, fell. The decline in shares of US memory-chip maker SanDisk in after-hours trading following its earnings announcement also weighed on the market. Meanwhile, Honda’s upward revision to its operating profit forecast for the current fiscal year and Shiseido’s second-quarter results, which exceeded market expectations, provided buying catalysts.
The bond market rose. As falling crude prices eased inflation concerns, buying of bonds spread across the market. Ahead of the 30-year Japanese government bond auction, market participants were focused on interest rates remaining at elevated levels of around 4%.
In the foreign-exchange market, the dollar at times tested levels near ¥158, but range-bound trading in the upper ¥157 range continued. While the market was seen as potentially developing a clearer direction depending on events in the Middle East, a wait-and-see mood spread ahead of the release of US employment data.