TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks opened higher Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street as worries subsided over Hurricane Harvey and North Korea, with investors awaiting US jobs data later in the day.
Trade would be cautious ahead of the release of US data including key jobs figures Friday, analysts said.
The dollar fetched 110.10 yen in early Asian trade, from 109.97 yen in New York.
“The market is closely watching” the US nonfarm payrolls data, which “is expected to see a brisk rise in the number of jobs,” said Ichiro Asai, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities, in an online video commentary.
Recent increases in the number of jobs were concentrated in industries with relatively low salaries, he added.
Global stocks posted healthy gains on Thursday on eased geopolitical concerns but were also aided by bullish economic data in Washington and comments from the US Treasury Secretary that corporate tax cuts could still come in 2017.
The blue-chip Dow Industrial Average closed up 0.3 percent at 21,948.10, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq had a new record close, rising a full percentage point to end at 6,428.66.
In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 0.40 percent, or 77.74 points, to 19,723.98 in the first minutes of trade, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was up 0.36 percent, or 5.76 points, at 1,623.17.
“After an initial good start, trade will likely become gradually cautious ahead of a series of key economic data in the US,” Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary.
ANA Holdings jumped 2.91 percent to 419.7 percent and SoftBank was up 1.10 percent at 9,021 yen.
Sony was up 1.01 percent at 4,381 yen and Panasonic was up 0.23 percent at 1,469 yen.
© Agence France-Presse
