Tokyo stocks snap 4-day win streak on firmer yen, tariff uncertainty
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended down 248.10 points, or 0.65 percent, from Wednesday at 38,173.09. The broader Topix index finished 5.75 points, or 0.21 percent, lower at 2,782.97.
On the top-tier Prime Market, decliners were led by service, chemical and transportation equipment issues.
The U.S. dollar weakened to the upper 143 yen range following a report that China is putting a six-month limit on export licenses for its rare earth exports to U.S. manufacturers, raising the prospect of further U.S.-China trade uncertainty, dealers said.
Stocks gave way to profit-taking after the Nikkei gained more than 800 points over the last four trading days. The yen's strength pressured export-oriented automakers, whose overseas profits are boosted by a weaker currency.
Shares in sectors with high oil demand such as airlines and steelmakers were sold on concern about rising energy costs as the key U.S. oil futures contract climbed amid growing tensions in the Middle East, analysts said.
The uncertain outlook over U.S. tariff negotiations with its major trading partners also weighed on the market following the report about China's minerals exports and a remark by the Japanese prime minister that the country will not sacrifice its national interests to reach a deal quickly.
"With prospects of tariff negotiations remaining unclear, investors were finding it difficult to take a risk-on approach," said Masahiro Yamaguchi, head of investment research at SMBC Trust Bank.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
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Intel declined to comment on the negotiations with the Trump administration. The notion of the U.S. government holding a huge stake in Intel would have seemed inconceivable back in the company's heyday when its processors were powering a personal computer boom that began in the mid-1970s. But Intel has been mired in tough times after missing mobile computing era unleashed by the iPhone's 2007 debut. Intel has fall even farther behind in recent years during an artificial intelligence craze that has been a boon for two of its once-smaller rivals, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. The Trump administration is hitching a ride on their success by imposing a 15% commission on their sales of their chip sales in China in exchange for their export licenses. Those fees are expected to translate into billions of dollars in additional government revenue. The U.S. government's negotiations to become a major Intel shareholder are coming on a heels of a $2 billion investment Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group disclosed late Monday that it plans to make in the Santa Clara, California, company. Softbank is accumulating its 2% stake in Intel at $23 per share — a slight discount from the stock's price when its investment was announced. Intel's shares surged nearly 7% to close at $25.31 on the news of Softbank's big bet on Intel, coupled with Trump's designs on the company. SoftBank invests in an array of companies that it sees as holding long-term potential. It has been stepping up investments in the United States since Trump returned to the White House. In February, its chairman Masayoshi Son joined Trump, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle in announcing a major investment of up to $500 billion in a project to develop artificial intelligence called Stargate. 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The company has received about $2.2 billion of the $7.8 billion pledged under the incentives program — money that Lutnick derided as a 'giveaway' that would better serve U.S. taxpayers if it's turned into Intel stock, which he said would be in the form of non-voting shares so the government wouldn't be able to use the stake to sway how the company is managed. But Intel's ongoing struggles also means the U.S. government is taking on a risky investment. The company is in the midst of its latest turnaround attempt under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who was hired in March to shake things up. Tan's turnaround effort so far has been focused on a cost-cutting spree that is gutting the company's workforce and further delaying construction on a chip plant in Ohio that has been in the works since 2022. 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