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Tokyo stocks close lower as investors wait for US-China trade talks
TOKYO, Aug 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo stocks closed lower on Monday as
investors retreated to the sidelines to wait for the outcome of US-China
trade talks later this week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.32 percent, or 71.38 points, to
22,199.00 while the broader Topix index was down 0.32 percent, or 5.38
points, at 1,692.15.
“The market is caught between hopes and worries,” said Mutsumi Kagawa,
chief global strategist at Rakuten Securities.
“The hopes are about possible progress in US-China trade frictions but
concern about the Turkish situation is still weighing on the market,” he told
AFP.
Investors were sitting on the sidelines to see how the talks between
Washington and Beijing will turn out, he said.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the world’s two biggest economies
were taking steps to try to resolve a trade dispute ahead of a November
summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Investors also “can’t shake off worries that the plunge in the Turkish lira
could spill over to other emerging markets,” Kagawa said.
Adding to investor caution is a speech later this week by US Federal
Reserve chief Jerome Powell at an annual international symposium of
economists and central bankers.
“If his tone on interest rate hikes is soft… it would underpin the yen
against the dollar”, a negative development for Japanese exporters, Kagawa
said.
The dollar was trading at 110.59 yen against 110.57 yen in New York Friday
afternoon.
In individual stocks trade, Toyota was down 0.63 percent to 6,760 yen while
Nintendo climbed 3.47 percent to 36,670 yen.
Panasonic, which supplies batteries to Tesla, was down 0.62 percent at
1,360.5 yen, after the electric carmaker’s shares tumbled on Friday as a
wide-ranging interview with chief executive Elon Musk sparked fresh fears
about the company’s future.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1452 hrs