Toyota Ratings Lowered, Tokyo Stocks Fall

Darlington Musarurwa
26 Nov, 2008
New York City

Stocks in Japan closed lower on falling domestic electronics sales and a sharp decline in U.S. home prices. Investors in Japan are looking for clues for the depth and length of the U.S. recession and its impact on the exports from Japan. Toyota debt rating was lowered to AA from AAA.

[R]5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo - Falling U.S. house prices drag Tokyo stocks lower. Consumer electronics shipment decline 9.2% in October.[/R]

Japan stock indexes fell on negative investor sentiment after U.S. metropolitan house prices declined 17.4% in September, sparking fears that the U.S. recession will deepen.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 declined 1.3% or 110.71 to 8,213.22 and the broader Topix Index slid 1.7% or 14.36 to 817.22.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 7.2 billion shares worth 567 billion yen were traded and in the second section 797 million shares valued at 867 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 stocks 59 increased, 162 declined, and 4 were unchanged. Tokio Marine HD led advancers in the index shares with a rise of 7.1%.

U.S. House Prices Decline, GDP Revised Lower

Standard & Poor reported yesterday that prices of single-family homes fell 17.4% in September from the same period a year ago.

The composite index of 20 metropolitan areas slid 1.8% in September from the previous month and the composite index of 10 metropolitan areas dropped 1.9% from August.

Rising unemployment, tight lending conditions and weak consumer sentiment is likely drag home prices lower.

For the three months to September, the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index fell 16.6% from the comparable year ago period.

For the year house prices fell 31.9% in Phoenix, 31.3% in Las Vegas, 29.5% in San Francisco, 28.4% in Miami, 27.6% in Los Angeles and 26.3% in San Diego.

Separately, the U.S. revised its third quarter real GDP declined by 0.5% from the previous estimate of 0.3% decline from the second quarter.

The current dollar GDP increased 3.6% in the third quarter to $14.42 trillion.

Japan''s Consumer Electronics Exports Fall

Yahoo News reported today that Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association says total domestic shipments fell 9.2% to 2.2 trillion yen in October after consumers slashed spending on electronic gadgets.

Shipments of video products declined 8.7% and audio product fell 5.9% in the review period.

Car electronic shipments also slid 11.3%.

However unit shipments of large screen televisions are mixed, with shipments of LCD TVs at 612,000, while exports of PDP TV plunged 90,000 units.

DVD player and recorder shipments dropped but Blu-ray Disc players and recorders rose more than 4 times to 167,000.

Gainers & Losers

Tokio Marine HD led advancers in the Nikkei 225 index shares with an increase of 7.1% followed by increases in Sompo Japan Insurance of 7.1%, in Tosoh Corp. of 5.3%, in Mitsui Sumitomo of 5.2%, and Taiheiyo Cement of 5.1%.

Isuzu Motors led decliners in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a fall of 7.9% followed by losses in Pioneer Corp. of 7.1%, in Mazda of 6.4%, in Shiseido Co. Ltd. of 6.4%, and Nomura Holdings of 6.2%.

Isuzu Motors fell after Fitch Ratings cut its rating on Toyota Motor Corp. to AA from AAA on lower global demand.