Japan’s Nikkei index ends lower, recording weekly losses

Japanese indices declined at the end of today’s trading due to strong economic data in America that reinforced bets that the Federal Reserve may delay the start of interest rate cuts.

At the end of the session, the Japanese Nikkei index fell by about 1.2% to 38,646 points, recording weekly losses of about 0.4%. While the Topix index ended today’s session with a decline of about 0.4%.

The decline in Japanese indices came after sharp losses on Wall Street yesterday, Thursday, after American factories announced an increase in the prices of a group of inputs, indicating that commodity price inflation may rise in the coming months. US 10-year bond yields jumped to their highest level in more than a week.

Chip companies’ shares fell sharply on Friday, becoming among the worst performers on the Nikkei index, after rising yesterday, Thursday, thanks to Nvidia’s profit expectations.

Advantest, a maker of chip testing equipment, fell 4.5%, Tokyo Electron, a maker of chip-making equipment, fell 2.8%, and Lasertech fell 4.5%.

In a separate context, economic data today revealed that inflation in Japan slowed for the second month in a row in April, at 2.2% on an annual basis, after recording 2.6% in March.