Tokyo shares tread water after U.S.-China trade deal; machinery makers lag

By Tomo Uetake
TOKYO, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Japanese shares were little
changed on Thursday after the United States and China signed an
interim deal to defuse their 18-month long trade war, with
factory automation machinery makers under pressure on soft
industry data.
The Nikkei share average .N225 added 0.1% to 23,933.13,
while the broader Topix .TOPX eased 0.1% to 1,728.72.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He
on Wednesday signed a deal that will roll back some tariffs and
see China boost purchases of U.S. goods and services by $200
billion over two years. However, the deal does not address structural economic
issues that led to the conflict, and does not fully eliminate
most of the tariffs imposed by both sides, while the $200
billion purchase targets look daunting to achieve. "Given the amount of speculation by the markets and
commentary by officials ahead of Wednesday's signing, it is
unsurprising markets have not rallied too strongly upon final
signing," said Hannah Anderson, global markets strategist at
JPMorgan Asset Management in Hong Kong.
Indeed, Tokyo-listed shares reacted more to domestic matters
as investors looked past an initial trade deal between the
world's two largest economies.
Factory automation machinery makers came under pressure
after the Japan Machine Tool Builders' Association released
flash orders data for December, which showed machine tool orders
slumped 33.6% year-on-year last month.
Yaskawa Electric Corp 6506.T shed 2.9%, SMC Corp 6273.T
dropped 2.2% and Makino Milling Machine 6135.T fell 1.0%.
Toshiba Machine 6104.T jumped 3.5% after the former
subsidiary of Toshiba Corp said it would sell its 15.8% stake in
NuFlare to its former parent, aiming to shrug off a higher
counter offer by Hoya Corp. The tender by Toshiba Machine would
allow Toshiba to secure more than two-thirds of NuFlare.

Toshiba 6502.T dipped 0.9% and Hoya 7741.T declined
1.1%.
Elsewhere, sports gear maker Asics Corp 7936.T climbed
2.5% after British media reported that World Athletics may ban
the use of Nike's NKE.N controversial running shoes with
super-thick soles.