The Japanese stock market needs to see more domestically-oriented companies step up their game to fuel further rallies, but the outlook for wages and the yen complicates the picture.
The focus has shifted to earnings announcements for the fiscal year ending March 31 for sectors that underperform the broad Topix Index, such as transportation, retailers and food companies. About 60% of Japanese companies will report in the coming weeks.
The rise in Japanese stocks since last year has been driven mainly by exporters, including carmakers and chip-related companies, which benefited from falling demand for currencies and semiconductors. But the weak outlook for the global chip market and the cautionary comments about the fall of the yen from Japanese business leaders have weighed heavily recently.
