Thursday November 19, 11:44 PM
Nikkei set to fall after Wall St losses, tech tumble
TOKYO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei (news) average is set to
fall on Friday, with tech stocks such as Advantest Corp
vulnerable after disappointing U.S. data fed concern about the
economic recovery and tech shares fell on a brokerage downgrade.
Investors will also watch Sony Corp, which on
Thursday pushed back an elusive target of an operating profit
margin of 5 percent to March 2013 as it heads for its second
straight loss and loses ground to overseas competitors.
'It's possible that Japan may have anticipated Wall Street's
fall a bit with the Nikkei losses on Thursday, but there are
plenty of Japan-specific selling factors right now too, such as
concerns about a rush of fundraising,' said Kazuhiro Takahashi,
an analyst at Daiwa Securities SMBC.
'Perhaps because of the approaching weekend, we could see
some short-covering, though.'
The Conference Board's index of U.S. leading economic
indicators, a gauge of the U.S. economy's prospects,
rose 0.3 percent to 103.8, the highest since September 2007. But
the rise fell short of Wall Street expectations.
Tech stocks were hammered after Bank of America (NYSE: IKJ - news) -Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER - news)
cut its 2010 growth outlook for the semiconductor industry on
concerns about a rising inventory glut, and downgraded 10 stocks
including Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC - news) .
Market players said that tech shares in Tokyo were likely to
be hit by this as well, though falls in the Nikkei as a whole
could be limited because Japanese shares appear to be oversold.
The benchmark Nikkei may move between 9,350 to 9,600,
market players said, with the market likely to hit the day's low
during morning trade and then gain on short-covering. It closed
at a four-month low of 9,549.47 on Thursday.
In a sign the market is likely to open lower, Nikkei futures
traded in Chicago closed at 9,460, down 1 percent from
the Osaka close.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2258 GMT ------------
INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 1094.9 -1.34% -14.900
USD/JPY 88.92 -0.07% -0.060
10-YR US TSY YLD 3.3416 -- -0.024
SPOT GOLD 1144.05 0.05% 0.550
US CRUDE 77.46 0.00% -2.120
DOW JONES (news) 10332.44 -0.90% -93.87
-------------------------------------------------------------
> Wall St drops on recovery concerns, tech rout
> Dollar, yen advance as risk tolerance declines
> US bonds rise as stocks slide feeds safety bid
> Gold rises a shade on sentiment despite dollar rise
> Oil falls more than $2 on equities, dollar
STOCKS TO WATCH
-- Advantest Corp, other chip gear makers
Data from the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan
showed that orders for chip-making equipment in October totalled
65 billion yen ($729 million), down 4.1 percent from the previous
month but up 66 percent from the same month last year.
Chip gear makers include Advantest (Berlin: VAN.BE - news) , Nikon Corp (Berlin: NKN.BE - news) , and
Tokyo Electron (Frankfurt: 865510 - news)
-- Komatsu Ltd
Komatsu (Berlin: KOM1.BE - news) 's financing business in China is likely to post a 600
million yen operating profit for the year ending in March 2010,
the Nikkei business daily said.
-- JFE Holdings Inc
JFE Steel, the world's sixth-largest steelmaker and a unit of
JFE Holdings (Frankfurt: 724564 - news) , said on Thursday that it will team up with India's
JSW Steel on automotive steel production in India.
JFE and JSW, India's third-biggest steelmaker, will also
discuss mutual shareholding and will consider expanding their
partnership to cover the production of other steel and material
purchases in India and abroad, JFE said in a statement.
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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