The Japanese stock market is modestly higher on Friday, tracking the positive cues overnight from Wall Street and a slightly weaker yen.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 39.15 points or 0.17 percent to 22,823.13, off a high of 22,871.39 in early trades.
The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is rising 0.3 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding 0.2 percent and Sony is edging higher by less than 0.1 percent, while Canon is declining 0.2 percent.
Shares of SoftBank Group are adding 0.6 percent after a consortium led by the company bought an approximately 17.5 percent stake in Uber in a deal that values the ride-hailing giant at about $48 billion.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is higher by 0.7 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is advancing 0.5 percent.
Among automakers, Honda is flat, while Toyota is declining 0.2 percent. In the oil space, Inpex is adding 0.3 percent, while Japan Petroleum Exploration is down 0.5 percent after crude oil prices rose overnight.
Among the market's best performers, Nippon Sheet Glass and Asahi Glass are rising more than 2 percent each, while Tokai Carbon is adding almost 2 percent.
On the flip side, Yahoo Japan and J. Front Retailing are declining more than 1 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 112 yen-range on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday in another lackluster performance, partly having reflected so-called window dressing, as investors looked to polish their portfolios going into the end of the year. Nonetheless, many traders remained away from their desks ahead of the New Year's weekend, leading to another light trading day.
The Dow climbed 63.21 points or 0.3 percent to 24,837.51, the Nasdaq edged up 10.82 points or 0.2 percent to 6,950.16 and the S&P 500 rose 4.92 points or 0.2 percent to 2,687.54.
European stocks mostly moved to the downside on Thursday. The German DAX Index slid by 0.7 percent and the French CAC 40 Index dropped by 0.6 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just above the unchanged line.
Crude oil prices continued to rise Thursday, touching fresh 2-year highs after another drop in U.S. oil inventories. West Texas Intermediate oil for February ended up $0.20 or 0.3 percent at $59.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
by RTT Staff Writer
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