Dollar holds above two-month low against yen

Dec 24 Japanese stocks ended lower on Thursday after giving up earlier gains as the strong yen hurt overall sentiment while trading was subdued ahead of the Christmas holiday. Although markets are open in Japan on Friday, many financial centres around the world are closed for the Christmas holidays.

The currency market largely ignored a 1.0 percent decline in Japan’s factory output in November announced by the government Monday morning, dealers said.

A man walks past an electronic board showing graphs of recent Japan’s Nikkei share average outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, December 1, 2015.

Separate data showed Japanese retail sales fell 1.0 percent in November from a year earlier, more than a median market forecast for a 0.6 percent fall. The yen gained for a fourth day to trade at 120.23 per dollar after touching the highest level since October 28. “We don’t have a lot of factors to move on”.

The Nikkei 225 slipped 0.11 percent, or 20.63 points, to 18,769.06 by the close. Over a holiday shortened week, it lost 1.15%.

“Stability in United States markets should cause Japanese stocks to try to rebound today and tomorrow”, Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co, told Bloomberg News. It was down 1.36 percent this week.

The Topix index is up 7.72 percent since the end of 2014.

The company cited “several issues” discovered after the jet’s maiden test flight last month.

The shares were hammered this week after Toshiba warned over a record $4.5bn annual loss and thousands of layoffs following an embarrassing profit-padding scandal.

Against the yen, the dollar was last steady at ¥120.42, off a session low of ¥120.17 as well as its Friday low of ¥120.05.

The Australian dollar was down 0.2 percent at $0.7267 but still within striking distance of a two-week peak of $0.7295 scaled on Friday.

Shanghai climbed 0.22 percent and Shenzhen rose 0.35 percent after lawmakers approved reforms to the system for initial public offerings.