Japan’s Nikkei loses stream as market awaits fresh catalyst

Japan’s Nikkei share average fell more than 1% on Wednesday, slipping from multi-week highs hit in the previous session as profit-taking dominated, while investors awaited a fresh catalyst to determine the U.S. interest rate path, Reuters reported.

The Nikkei was down 1.37% at 38,303.39 by the midday break.

The broader Topix was down 1.22% at 2712.70.

With comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and a recent downside surprise in job growth reassuring markets that interest rate cuts may still be in store this year, the Nikkei rallied to a three-week high on Tuesday.

As investors looked for new signals to confirm the timing and size of potential cuts, U.S. stock markets meandered overnight, giving Japan’s Nikkei little momentum to go on.

“The timing of U.S. interest rate cuts will greatly impact Japanese stocks,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.

If inflation in the United States settles down and the chance of rate cuts increases, Japanese equities will follow Wall Street higher, he said.

“I think it’s highly likely that the Nikkei will approach 39,000 or 40,000 again by the end of the year.”

The index rose to an all-time high of 41,087.75 earlier this year before retreating sharply in April.

With little news to drive the market on Wednesday, earnings revenue results and profit-taking drew out winners and losers in the morning session.

Uniqlo parent firm Fast Retailing slumped 2.4%.

Nintendo declined 4.4% after the gaming company announced post-trading hours on Tuesday that it expects operating profit to fall this year.

Automaker Toyota Motor fell 1.6% as investors awaited the firm’s 2024 earnings release due during the afternoon session.

A drag in U.S. technology shares on Tuesday also generated some headwinds for Japanese shares.

Chip-making equipment giant Tokyo Electron and chip-testing equipment maker Advantest both slipped about 1% each.