By Nicolas Johnson and Norie Kuboyama Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks dropped as corporate earnings missed analysts’ estimates, while oil rose on concern flaring violence in Egypt’s ninth day of demonstrations will lead to more turmoil in the Middle East. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.3 percent to 10,431.36 at 3:52 p.m. in Tokyo, with about as many shares declining as advancing. Most Asian exchanges were closed for the rest of the week for the Lunar New Year. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures retreated 0.1 percent. Oil climbed 0.6 percent. The dollar rose, while New Zealand’s currency weakened after the nation’s unemployment rate increased. Gunfire erupted early today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square after supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak battled with demonstrators demanding an immediate end to his 30-year reign. More than 600 were injured and five killed, the nation’s state television reported. In Tokyo, shares of Panasonic Corp. and Ricoh Co. dropped after the electronics makers reported earnings that fell short of estimates. “If the demonstrations in Egypt spill over to oil- producing countries, the price of crude will rise further and inflation will accelerate, boosting concerns about the economic future of emerging countries,” said Hisakazu Amano, who helps oversee $29 billion at T&D Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 0.5 percent, with about as many stocks up as down. Markets in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore shut yesterday for the Lunar New Year holiday, and most Asian exchanges are closed today and tomorrow. Equity Movers Chiyoda Corp., a Japanese engineering company that counts on the Middle East for 47 percent of sales, slid 0.5 percent. Panasonic, the world’s biggest maker of plasma televisions, lost 3.2 percent, its sharpest decline in three months. The company reported October-December net income of 40 billion yen ($491 million), missing the 44.7 billion yen average of four analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Ricoh, a maker of office electronics, plunged 9.9 percent, the steepest drop in the Nikkei 225, after earnings also fell short of estimates, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its investment rating on the shares to “underweight” from “neutral.” This week is the peak for quarterly results in Japan, with more than a third of the Topix index’s 1,668 companies scheduled to report earnings. Of the 676 that have posted net income since Jan. 1 for the latest quarter, 92 have exceeded analysts’ estimates, while 78 have missed them, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Oil Advances Crude oil for March delivery climbed to $91.41 s barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March settlement increased 0.9 percent to $103.24 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. It last closed at $102.34, the highest since September 2008. Jordan announced a change of government Feb. 1 after protests last week. About 2.5 percent of global oil production moves through Egypt via the Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean Pipeline, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “If the Egyptian situation results in the removal of the current administration quickly, then the consequences may be that other regions will follow,” Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney, said by telephone today. “It could create a contagion that could see the Middle Eastern premium being brought back in a big way because you do have that risk to the Suez.” Commodity Records Copper advanced to records in London and New York as manufacturing improved from China to the U.S., boosting the demand outlook for the metal used in construction and autos. The three-month delivery contract on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 0.5 percent $9,993 a metric ton. Rubber gained to an all-time high of 488.3 yen a kilogram ($5,982 a ton) as weather disruptions to tapping in Southeast Asia continued to curb supplies amid rising demand for vehicle tires in China and India. Wheat rose to the highest since August 2008 after a cold snap in the U.S. threatened winter crops. Wheat gained as much as 1.1 percent to $8.7275 a bushel, the highest price since Aug. 25, 2008. New Zealand’s dollar slipped for a fifth day against its Australian counterpart after government data showed the jobless rate rose to 6.8 percent in the last quarter of 2010. The weakened to NZ$1.3078 per Australian dollar from NZ$1.3057. “The recovery is quite patchy and this has been quite a volatile number,” said Tim Kelleher, vice president of institutional banking and markets at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Auckland. “The kiwi will stay on the back foot, but it should hold above 77 U.S. cents.” Homes, Currencies In Australia, the Bureau of Statistics said home- building approvals surged by the most in nine months in December and the trade surplus was wider than economists forecast, as a mining-investment boom contributed to a record year for job growth. The U.S. dollar gained against most of its major peers before U.S. reports this week that may show services industries grew for a 14th month and hiring increased in January. The greenback rose as the Associated Press reported gunfire today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Al Jazeera network showed footage of bodies being dragged along a street. Europe’s single currency held three days of gains versus the yen on speculation European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet will signal a willingness to tackle inflation when policy makers meet today after data showed rising prices across the region. The dollar traded at $1.3790 per euro from $1.3811 in New York yesterday, when it fell to as low as $1.3862, the least since Nov. 9. It fetched 81.63 yen from 81.55 yen yesterday, when it advanced 0.3 percent. The euro was little changed at 112.58 yen. Accelerating Inflation? The euro region’s inflation accelerated to a 2.4 percent annual rate in January, the statistics office said in a preliminary estimate Jan. 31, the fastest since October 2008. Trichet said on Jan. 26 the ECB will “do what is necessary” to maintain price stability. “There’s an underlying theme that rates are going to be on the rise in Europe ahead of the U.S. and that’s why we’ve seen the euro appreciate quite substantially,” said Tim Waterer, a foreign-exchange dealer at CMC Markets in Sydney. “A lot will depend on the sort of rhetoric that comes from Trichet in terms of how aggressive he sounds on the interest- rate outlook.” Retail sales increased 0.5 percent in December from a month earlier, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg is forecast to say today, according to economists in a Bloomberg News survey. --With assistance by Ben Sharples in Melbourne, Shani Raja in Sydney, Rocky Swift in Tokyo and Matt Oakley in Singapore. Editor: Patrick Chu, To contact the reporters on this story: Nicolas Johnson in Tokyo at nicojohnson@bloomberg.net; Norie Kuboyama in Tokyo at nkuboyama@bloomberg.net.

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