TOKYO: Tokyo stocks closed flat on Friday as the dollar weakened against the yen and following losses on Wall Street fuelled by disappointing US corporate results.
The Nikkei-225 index edged down 12.74 points to 15,734.46, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares rose 0.23 percent, or 3.00 points, to 1,297.39.
On Thursday, the US Department of Labor reported weekly jobless claims fell to 326,000, indicating the jobs market is recovering slowly.
Also, it said core consumer prices which exclude volatile energy and food prices rose just 0.1 percent in December.
The yearly rate was 1.5 percent, and the core rate was up 1.7 percent, below the Federal Reserve's 2.0 percent target.
On the corporate side US electronics retailer Best Buy plunged 28.6 percent on Wall Street after saying November-December same-store sales were 0.8 percent lower than the previous year's holiday shopping season.
Citigroup took a hit with below-forecast earnings and chip giant Intel also sank in after-market trade as it said net profit last year fell 13 percent.
"Intel Corp's earnings miss and lukewarm forecast are likely to have a measurable impact on Japanese stocks, given its size and influence in the PC market," Okasan Securities director Takashi Matsumoto told Dow Jones Newswires.
The Dow fell 0.39 percent and the S&P 500 slipped 0.13 percent a day after hitting a record high but the Nasdaq edged up 0.09 percent.
In forex trading, the dollar drifted to 104.33 yen from 104.37 yen in New York Thursday, as a Japanese government monthly report described the economy as "recovering" for the first time in six years.
Major exporters lost ground, with Toyota falling 0.97 percent to 6,200 yen while Sony was down 1.33 percent at 1,780 yen.
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal eased 1.46 percent to 337 yen after a major fire engulfed its steel plant in central Japan on Friday. (AFP)
