World Business Briefing: Japan: Industrial Production Dropped in May
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Japanâs industrial production unexpectedly dropped in May for a third month, the longest losing streak in almost two years. Production fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent from a month earlier, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. Slower production diminishes hopes that economic growth will accelerate, in contrast with other reports released in the last week, which said that export growth almost doubled to 15.1 percent in May and retail sales gained for the first time in eight months. The Bank of Japanâs governor, Toshihiko Fukui, said this month that the bank needed more evidence of the economyâs strength before it raises the key interest rate from 0.5 percent.
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Japan's Nikkei average ended down half a  percent on Friday as caution set in ahead of U.S. jobs data due  later in the day, with banks and drug firms succumbing to  profit-taking.
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Japan's Nikkei average fell around 0.8  percent by mid-afternoon on Tuesday after industrial output  data sapped investor appetite for tech issues and profit-taking  hit recent gainers such as Nippon Steel Corp.
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Machinery orders by Japanese firms fall in 2007, adding to fears about the health of the economy.
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Japanâs economy contracted in the April-June quarter, the government said in a revision of its preliminary estimate that it had expanded. The latest data suggest that Japanâs economy may be suffering a slowdown in its pace of growth, making it harder for the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates anytime soon. The government said the nationâs gross domestic product fell 1.2 percent on an annual basis in the April-June period, the first contraction in three quarters. Its preliminary estimate was that the economy had grown 0.5 percent in the spring quarter.
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Japanese automakers, including No. 1 Toyota Motor Corp., called production halts Wednesday at factories in Japan because of quake damage at a major parts supplier.
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Japanâs machinery orders fell in December, signaling that economic growth may slow this year as companies scale back spending on factories and equipment. Non-government machinery orders, excluding shipping and utilities, declined a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent from November, the Cabinet Office said.
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The Nikkei average fell one percent by  midsession on Friday as makers of heavy machinery and other  cyclical shares fell after the government surprised the market  by revising down economic growth data.
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New orders at U.S. factories fell a smaller-than-forecast 0.5 percent in May, logging the first decline in four months.
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Growth in manufacturing slowed from the euro zone to Japan in October as strong oil prices and a stuttering global economy took their toll, although British companies performed better, survey data showed.
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Japanese industrial production fails to expand for a second month in a row, official figures show.
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The Japanese government downgraded its  view on the economy slightly on Tuesday, citing weaker exports  and output, but it said a recovery was continuing due to steady  domestic demand, in terms of both personal consumption and  capital spending.  "The economy continues to recover, while  some weak movements have been seen recently," the government  said in its monthly economic report.
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Tokyo's Nikkei average closed lower  Thursday, ending a three-day winning streak as profit-taking  hit Toyota Motor Corp. and other exporters that had benefited  from gains on Wall Street and a weaker yen.
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Japan's unemployment rate fell to 4.1% in July, official figures show, as the economy continues to recover.
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TOKYO : Japanese industrial output rose only 0.3 percent in August, suggesting after a series of recent weak data that the recovery in the world&#39;s second-largest economy is slowing, economists said on Thursday.
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Japan's core private-sector machinery orders, a key gauge of corporate capital spending, rose 5.9 percent in May from the previous month, government data showed on Monday.
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WASHINGTON -- Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods plunged in May by the largest amount in four months as demand for aircraft, heavy machinery and metals all declined.