The Tokyo Stock Exchange fell Monday morning, investors continuing as on Wall Street to gauge the likelihood of further monetary tightening in Europe and the United States, against a backdrop of fears of global recession.
The flagship Nikkei index lost 0.86% to 27,290.65 points around 01:00 GMT, and the broader Topix index fell 0.4% to 1,942.37 points.
The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Friday after a week marked by statements from the US central bank (Fed), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England suggesting that their fight against inflation was going Continue.
“Weakness in US equities is putting downward pressure on Japanese equities, and the strong yen is also a negative factor,” said Shoji Hirakawa of the Tokai Tokyo Research Institute, quoted by Bloomberg.
The Japanese currency rallied against the dollar on Monday morning after Japanese news agency Kyodo reported over the weekend that the Japanese government was considering revising its joint inflation target with the Bank of Japan (BoJ). 2% in the country.
This modification, which would take effect after the end of the mandate of the current governor of the BoJ Haruhiko Kuroda, next April, would open the way to a revision of the policy of monetary easing that the institution has been pursuing for almost 10 years.
On the side of values
TOSHIBA: the title of the industrial and technological conglomerate Toshiba tumbled 5.43% to 4,492 yen. According to the Nikkei daily, the consortium led by the Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) fund, designated as the “preferred” candidate by Toshiba for its takeover, would consider revising its offer down the equivalent of more than one billion euros. compared to that envisaged at the beginning of November, and below Toshiba’s capitalization at the close on Friday.
LAWSON FEARS RECESSION: Japanese convenience store operator Lawson (-3.16% to 4,900 yen) on Friday withdrew the Tokyo Stock Exchange listing application filed in September for its subsidiary Seijo Ishii, a chain of supermarkets specializing in high-end and imported food products, citing “general stock market trends”.
On the side of currencies and oil
The dollar fell against the yen, at the rate of one dollar for 136.13 yen around 01:00 GMT against 136.60 yen on Friday at 21:00 GMT.
The euro weakened to 144.29 yen against 144.61 yen at the end of last week, and was worth 1.0600 dollars against 1.0586 dollars on Friday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
On the oil market, the price of a barrel of American WTI gained 0.94% to 74.99 dollars and that of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea 1.01% to 79.84 dollars around 00:50 GMT.
mac/tmt