Shaw Capital Management Online: Japan Shares Drop on Europe Tax Plan; Sony Falls

http://shawcapitalmanagementonline.com/blog/2011/10/04/shaw-capital-management-reports-japan-shares-drop-on-europe-tax-plan-sony-falls/

WRITTEN BY: SCMONLINEBLOG - OCT• 04•11
Japanese shares dropped for the first time in the span of three days while the French and German heads announced they will not increase a budget to help Europe’s debt crisis. Meanwhile, housing starts in US fell, renewing the concern that profits of exporters will be cut back as Shaw Capital management fears.

Sony Corporation, Japan’s largest exporter of consumer electronics, slumped 1.9% following talks in Paris yesterday between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Meanwhile, the world’s biggest carmaker, Toyota Motor Corporation, dropped 1.4%. Japan’s top energy exploration company, Inpex Corporation, fell 2.3% due to reduced crude prices.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 0.8% to 9,039 as of 9:31 am. While the wider Topix index fell 0.5% to 774 with 3 shares losing for every 2 that climbs up.

An equities manager at SMBC Nikko Securities, Inc, Hiroichi Nishi, said that the meeting in Paris proved debt matters can’t be resolved in such a short time.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.4% today. Yesterday, as the French and German leaders did not approved of selling euro bonds and increasing the 440-billion euro ($633 billion) rescue fund, the New York index dropped 1% to 1,1,92. Both leaders also proposed submitting another financial-transaction tax that was previously rejected in 2010.

European Union’s statistics office announced yesterday in Luxembourg that the 17-nation Euro area, Gross Domestic Product grew 0.2% in the second quarter compared to previous months when the economy increased 0.8%. In a Bloomberg News Survey, this has been the weakest expansion since the euro zone emerged from a downturn in late 2009 and was less than the 0.3% average estimate of 34 economists.

The Commerce Department detailed that housing starts in the US dropped 1.5% in July from June, and the alternative for future construction also suffered a setback, Shaw Capital management observed.

Nishi added, “The housing numbers of US were not really strong, which triggers a persistent delay in their economy.”

Exporters decreased following reports of economic development in Europe and the opposite happening in the US, which hurt the position for earnings abroad. Sony dropped 1.9% to 1,668 yen, Toyota fell 1.4% to 2,860 yen and Japan’s third biggest carmaker, Honda, lost 2.3% to 2,556 yen.

On the other hand, mining companies reduced prices of oil products. Inpex lost 2.3% to 514,000 yen. The second biggest oil driller, Japan Petroleum Exploration Company, fell 0.8% to 3,330 yen.

Yesterday, crude oil for September delivery decreased 1.4% to stay at 86.65 dollars per barrel in New York. Prices of 6 industrial metals, including aluminum and copper, fell 0.5% in the London Metal Exchange Index.