The market took a breather ... as investors moved to lock-in profits after the main indices here surged to more-than-five-year highs.
The market still has confidence in economic fundamentals and corporate earnings outlooks, and it isn't questioning those.
The market is now focused on U.S. data such as the manufacturing report. My long-term view is that solid growth will support higher stock prices.
The market is filled with good leads today, including the stronger dollar and upbeat corporate earnings results, following a positive surprise last week in Sony's report.
In the current market, high techs are not exactly the target of investors' buying interest. Under these circumstances, it wouldn't help at all to post disappointing earnings.
Good economic reports provided us a relief and I expect stocks will rebound from yesterday's losses.
We cannot see any upper limit for commodity prices given the tight supply. There is still room for commodity stocks to gain.
The core nationwide CPI emerged largely in line with market consensus forecast, so market's initial reaction appeared to be generally limited. There's no fundamental reason to actively sell shares below the 15,700 mark.
The share prices of JFE and Nippon Steel fell after they had risen until Monday. They will not drop so much with the positive forecasts.
Technology stocks continue to advance, driven by expectations about their earnings. Better-than-expected results at U.S. technology companies are also prompting investors' speculation.
