February Trade Deficit in Japan Widnes 55%, Yen Eases

Hiruki Nakamura
18 Mar, 2015
New York City

Seasonally adjusted trade deficit in February widened 55% from January. Exports declined 7% and imports eased 3.4%. The yen weakening to above 121 against a dollar lifted market indexes in Tokyo. Seven & I jumped on a speculation that profit for the year ending in February is ahead of expectations.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Seasonally adjusted trade deficit in February widened 55% from January after exports declined 7% and imports eased 3.4%. The yen weakening to above 121 against a dollar lifted market indexes in Tokyo. Seven & I jumped on a speculation that profit for the year ending in February is ahead of expectations.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo traded higher after the yen continued to weaken and investors stayed focused on the announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve tomorrow.

Seasonally adjusted trade deficit in February widened by 54.9% to 638.768 billion yen compared to 424.34 billion yen in January, the Ministry of Finance said today.

Exports in the month declined 7% to 6,227.56 billion yen from 6,697.42 billion yen in January. Import in February dropped 3.4% 6,866.33 billion yen compared to 7,109.76 billion yen in January.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 107.48 or 0.5% to 19,544.48 and the broader Topix index gained 11.96 to 1,582.86.

The yen eased and extended losses to 121.31 against a dollar.

Stocks in Review

JFE Holdings, Inc slipped 1.3% to 2,740.50 yen after the Nikkei news reported the steel products maker’s group pre-tax profit for the fiscal ending in March 2016 to climb more than 30% to 300 billion yen or $2.45 billion.

The company forecasted pre-tax profit for fiscal 2014 to surge 27% to 220 billion yen after engineering segment may received record orders worth of about 450 billion yen in this fiscal year, 23% higher than the previous year.

Softbank Corporation slid 0.2% to 6,986 yen after the mobile service provider agreed to raise its stake to 33.21% in domestic online marketing support services provider Scigineer Inc from D C M V, L. P. and DCM Affiliates Fund V, L.P,

Last week Softbank acquired additional 20.47% stake in Scigineer for 1.9 billion yen.

Shares of Scigineer Inc climbed 3.3% to 4,865 yen.

Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd gained 1.5% to 5,029 yen after the Nikkei news reported convenience stores operator’s revenue for the year ending in February estimated to jump 8% to about 6.1 trillion yen and group operating profit to increase 2% to 345 billion yen or $2.84 billion from a year ago period.

The company had forecast a 5% gain to 356 billion yen as of January.

Sumitomo Corp fell 0.7% to 1,319 yen after the Nikkei news said trading company may suffer its first group net loss in 16 years for the year ending March and miss its net profit estimate of 10 billion yen released in September.

The trading company plan to keep its announcement of annual dividend increase by 3 yen to 50 yen.

Toyota Motor Corp jumped 1.5% to 8,463 yen after the automobile company forecasted group operating profit for the year to climb 18% form a year ago to 2.7 trillion yen.