Asian Shares Hit by Underperforming US Data

May 14, 2015 Share Print 0

Asian shares traded mixed on Thursday, following a lacklustre lead from Wall Street, where stocks fell on renewed concerns about US growth.

Weak retail sales data for April, along with poor earnings from US retailers such as Macy’s and JC Penney, weighed on investor sentiment, sending the Dow Jones and S&P 500 lower.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 closed down 1% to 19,570.24, as the dollar weakened against the yen.
The dollar was buying 119.18 yen.

That compares with 119.83 yen in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Shares of car parts maker Takata were down 5.4% after Honda and Daihatsu said it was recalling over five million cars over potentially dangerous airbags made by the company.

It follows a recall 6.5 million more cars from Toyota and Nissan on Wednesday.

Bucking the trend were shares of camera maker Konica Minolta, which soared 12% after it announced a share buyback and dividend rise on solid earnings.

Meanwhile, Japanese electronics maker Sharp agreed a 200bn yen ($1.7bn; £1bn) bailout from banks, after announcing further losses and job cuts.

It is Sharp’s second bailout in three years.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.