FX.co ★ Japanese Shares Struggle as Tech Drags

On Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index edged down by 0.1% to approximately 45,600 points, while the Topix index gained 0.2% to reach 3,177. The mixed performance of Japanese equities came amid uncertainty, particularly impacting technology stocks. This followed two consecutive days of declines in major U.S. indexes, largely fueled by concerns over elevated valuations and intricate dependencies within the AI sector. Domestically, the minutes from the Bank of Japan's July meeting suggested that policymakers are prepared to increase interest rates further if economic and price conditions unfold as anticipated. Investors are now awaiting Tokyo's inflation data set for release on Friday, which serves as a crucial indicator for national price trends and could provide additional insights into the future policy direction. The technology sector saw broad declines, with notable losses including Lasertec (-0.8%), SoftBank Group (-0.8%), Advantest (-1.5%), Tokyo Electron (-0.4%), and Keyence (-1.4%). Conversely, financial and consumer sectors performed better.