By Michael Kitchen
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Japanese stocks fell Tuesday morning as the market returned from a holiday to face a soft U.S. lead and the dollar fell back below the 83-yen mark to ¥82.71. In early trading, the benchmark Nikkei Stock Average (JP:NI225 10,511, -30.36, -0.29%) lost 0.5% to 10,484.0, while the Topix gave up 0.3% to 923.7. Export-focused tech shares were among those hardest hit, with Sony Corp. (JP:6758 3,020, +10.00, +0.33%) (SNE 36.15, +0.11, +0.31%) losing 1.1%, Renesas Electronics Corp. (JP:6723 977.00, -9.00, -0.91%) (RNECY 5.72, -0.34, -5.61%) diving 3.4%, Sharp Corp. (JP:6753 893.00, -3.00, -0.33%) (SHCAF 10.58, +0.38, +3.73%) off by 1%, and Elpida Memory Inc. (JP:6665 1,041, +7.00, +0.68%) (ELPDF 0.00, 0.00, 0.00%) down 2.7%. Trading firms managed to tack on gains, however, with Mitsui & Co. (JP:8031 1,417, -10.00, -0.70%) (MITSY 338.34, -3.54, -1.04%) rising 0.5%, and Mitsubishi Corp. (JP:8058 2,349, -24.00, -1.01%) (MSBHY 56.09, +0.19, +0.34%) up 0.3%. |
