schema:articleBody
| - Tokyo stocks opened flat on Monday as a positive impact from rallies on Wall Street was offset by concerns over soaring US-China ties. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.04 percent or 8.03 points to 22,912.27 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.01 percent or 0.22 points at 1,604.28. "Support from rallies in US shares is seen offset by concerns over worsening US-China ties," Mizuho Securities said in a commentary. Video app TikTok said Saturday it will challenge in court a Trump administration crackdown on the popular Chinese-owned platform, which Washington accuses of being a national security threat. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 6 giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance -- effectively setting a deadline for a potential pressured sale of the app to a US company. Trump claims TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build dossiers on people for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage. The company has said it has never provided any US user data to the Chinese government, and Beijing has blasted Trump's crackdown as political. The dollar fetched 105.82 yen in early Asian trade, against 105.78 yen in New York late Friday. "It's a very light week ahead in terms of top tier data... the exception and looming large over the week being an address by Fed Chair Jay Powell at the (virtual) Kansas City Fed Jackson Hole symposium, where he will talk on the Fed's monetary policy framework review," Ray Attrill, senior strategist at National Australia Bank, said in a note. Among major shares in Tokyo, game giant Nintendo was up 2.07 percent at 55,830 yen, Toyota was trading up 0.27 percent at 7,101 yen and Sony up 0.60 percent at 8,334 yen. Chip-linked shares were lower, with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest losing 1.18 percent to 5,020 yen and chip-making equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron falling 0.93 percent to 27,715 yen. On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.7 percent at 27,930.33. kh/sah/axn
|