Monday May 12, 11:57 PM
Tokyo shares outlook - Higher on Wall Street rebound
TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japanese shares are expected to open higher on Tuesday following a rebound on Wall Street after a drop in crude oil prices helped ease concerns about inflation.
Light (LIGT3.SA - news) , sweet crude oil fell $1.73 to settle at $124.23 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after briefly hitting a new trading high of $126.40.
Also helping lift U.S. stocks was news from London-based HSBC Holdings PLC., which said its first-quarter earnings were up from a year ago although the global banking company took a $3.2 billion writedown on subprime mortgage assets in the United States.
But last week's news about insurer American International Group (NYSE: AIG - news) planning to raise cash and Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) looking to shed assets as they recover from big losses tied to deterioration in the mortgage and credit markets will make investors stay cautious.
'The market is watching closely if the U.S. authority will make a fresh policy move,' NTT Smarttrade director Takashi Kudo said.
'The market is also eagerly awaiting retail sales data, as well as the speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke [this week] to reassess the depth of the economic problem in the United States and the state of the credit problem,' he said.
On Wall Street on Monday, the Dow rose 130.43 points, or 1.0 percent, to 12,876.31, while the Nasdaq composite (NASDAQ: news) index rose 42.97 points, or 1.8 percent, to 2,488.49.
The Chicago-traded Nikkei (news) futures contract settled at 13,865 points, up from 13,790 on the
Osaka Securities Exchange on Monday, suggesting a firm start for the Tokyo market.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed up 88.02 points or 0.6 percent at 13,743.36, while the broader Topix added 1.03 points or 0.1 percent to 1,342.79.
Ahead, Daiichi Sankyo Co (Stuttgart: A0F57T - news) ., Hitachi Ltd (Xetra: 853219 - news) ., Nissan Motor Co (Berlin: NISA.BE - news) ., Astellas Pharma Inc (Berlin: YPH.BE - news) ., Pioneer Corp (Munich: 857040 - news) ., Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Tokyo Electron Ltd (Stuttgart: 865510 - news) ., will release earnings for the
year ended March 31.
Stocks to watch include Pioneer on a report that the audio visual equipment maker will cut 2,000
jobs, or some 5 percent of its global workforce, by the end of March 2009, in a bid to turn around
its loss-making plasma television business.
($1 = 103.91 yen)
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