Tokyo stocks opened lower Tuesday as investors locked in gains after sharp rises the previous day, with many awaiting the outcome later in the day of the Bank of Japan's policy meeting. In the first 15 minutes of trading, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average fell 237.52 points, or 0.60 percent, from Monday to 39,502.92. The broader Topix index was down 2.77 points, or 0.10 percent, at 2,719.22. On the top-tier Prime Market, decliners were led by precision instrument, pharmaceutical and marine transportation issues. At 9 a.m., the U.S. dollar fetched 149.14-15 yen compared with 149.09-19 yen in N...
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The Bank of Japan is widely expected to end its negative interest rate policy and overhaul its powerful monetary easing on Tuesday as robust wage growth boosts the likelihood of achieving its long-elusive goal of stable inflation. Financial markets expect the BOJ to raise its policy interest rate, currently set at minus 0.1 percent, at the end of a two-day policy meeting in what would be the first hike in 17 years. Among other policy tools, the BOJ is also seen by analysts as scrapping its yield cap program, under which borrowing costs have been kept artificially low through its buying of gove...
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Americans continue to perceive China as the biggest adversary of the United States, followed by Russia, while Canada and Japan share the highest favorable rating of 83 percent, a Gallup poll released Monday showed. In the telephone survey conducted in February, 41 percent of respondents said China when asked to name one country they considered to be their nation's "greatest enemy today." It is the fourth straight year for China to top the perceived enemies list, though the number declined from 50 percent in 2023. Russia and Iran followed at 26 percent and 9 percent, respectively. While the fig...
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Kenjiro Shinozuka, the first Japanese driver to win the Paris-Dakar Rally, died Monday of pancreatic cancer. He was 75. Shinozuka died at a hospital in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture. He competed in Japanese rallies while working as an employee of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. from 1971. Shinozuka made his Paris-Dakar Rally debut in 1986 with a Pajero and won the championship in 1997. He also won the Ivory Coast Rally in 1991 and 1992.
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Max Muncy and Will Smith drove in two runs apiece, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 5-2 win over South Korea's national team in the final exhibition game Monday. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani went hitless in three at-bats in front of a crowd of 14,856 at Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome, where the Dodgers and San Diego Padres will face each other Wednesday and Thursday in the first two games of Major League Baseball's regular season. The Dodgers turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the third inning as Smith and Muncy had back-to-back doubles to drive in three runs. Chris Taylor added...
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The San Diego Padres' Yu Darvish is going from one first to another this week in Seoul, where he will pitch in Major League Baseball's first game in South Korea and appears to be savoring every minute of the experience, even the thought of his first confrontation with superstar Japanese compatriot Shohei Ohtani. On Monday, Darvish told a press conference that one of his challenges will be facing Ohtani for the first time and treating that at-bat against a two-time MVP in MLB whom he once mentored as if it were nothing special. "We've been training together now and then, but this time he'll be ...
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Attendance remained low for the first three exhibition games in Seoul before the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres play the first-ever MLB regular-season games in South Korea later this week. At Seoul's 18,000-seat Gocheok Sky Dome, attendance came to 14,671 for Sunday's day game between the Dodgers and Kiwoom Heroes and 12,497 for Sunday's night game between the Padres and South Korea's national team. On Monday, only 6,815 fans turned out for the Padres-LG Twins day game, in which Korean star Kim Ha Seong hit a pair of two-run homers for San Diego. "The (exhibition) tickets weren't sol...
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Tokyo stocks ended sharply higher Monday, with the Nikkei surging over 2 percent, as exporters were boosted by the yen's weakness against the U.S. dollar, while sentiment was lifted on receding concerns regarding the Bank of Japan's policy meeting results the next day. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 1,032.80 points, or 2.67 percent, from Friday at 39,740.44. The broader Topix index finished 51.19 points, or 1.92 percent, higher at 2,721.99. On the top-tier Prime Market, gainers were led by real estate, machinery and insurance issues. The dollar was firm in the lower 149 yen range ...
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Japan winger Junya Ito scored his third league goal of the season for Reims in France on Sunday, when Freiburg attacker Ritsu Doan also reached the same tally in Germany. The 31-year-old Ito sealed Reims' 2-1 home win over Metz in Ligue 1 with a fine 79th-minute strike, finding the top left corner of the net following a marauding run into the box for his first goal since November. Doan, meanwhile, scored for the second time in five Bundesliga matches during Freiburg's 3-2 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, canceling out Florian Wirtz's early goal by burying a shot low inside the near corner in t...
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The Nikkei stock index jumped over 2 percent Monday morning, as export-oriented issues were boosted by the yen's weakness against the U.S. dollar and investors hunted bargains after sharp losses last week. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average rose 813.79 points, or 2.10 percent, from Friday to 39,521.43. The broader Topix index was up 40.35 points, or 1.51 percent, at 2,711.15. The dollar stayed firm around the 149 yen line on expectations that the Bank of Japan is likely to maintain an accommodative monetary stance even if it moves to end its negative interest rate policy at its two-day meeting...
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