Reply #1: Tokyo stocks retreat following overnight falls in U.S. shares

[EuroObserver]

(Kyodo) Tokyo stocks retreated Friday following overnight declines in U.S. shares, but trading was slow with a wait-and-see mood ahead of the release later in the day of a U.S. employment report for January.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 50.91 points, or 0.30 percent, to 16,659.64. The Tokyo Stock Price Index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 3.06 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,707.96.

Tokyo stocks traded lower throughout the day after shares in New York ended Thursday sharply lower on a wide front due partly to growing jitters about inflation.

As investors refrained from making major bets ahead of the release of the U.S. employment report, Tokyo shares moved narrowly, keeping the benchmark Nikkei in a range of less than 100 points.
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After the benchmark Nikkei ended at a new five-year, five-month high Thursday, the Tokyo market was also weighed on by concerns over the recent fast pace of the index's recovery following a sell-off triggered by public prosecutors' raid of Livedoor Co. in mid-January for alleged securities law violation, brokers said.

Trading volume on the TSE's main section shrank to 2,123.71 from Thursday's 2,506.73 million shares. Declining issues led advancing ones 880 to 701, with 91 shares ending unchanged.

Among the major decliners were oil and mining issues, following overnight falls in crude oil futures in New York on the anticipation that it will reduce the value of their inventories. Nippon Oil, Cosmo Oil and Inpex all skidded lower.
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The TSE's Second Section index was up 11.33 points, or 0.21 percent, to 5,296.41 on a volume of 115.66 million shares. In Osaka, the near-term March Nikkei 225 index futures contract was down 10 points to 16,690 /more...