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Japan, Korea open in red
TOKYO, Japan -- Japanese and Korean stocks are lower in early trading Friday, following a drop on Wall Street. South Korea's Kospi is showing the sharpest fall, down 2.5 percent to 573.45, with hefty declines for the market's biggest stocks, Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom and Hyundai Motor. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 average is down 1 percent to 7770.46, following a gain of 0.79 percent on Thursday. The broader capital-weighted Topix index is down 0.93 percent at 787.06. Weighing on the market are the latest Japanese jobless figures, showing a rise to 5.4 percent in March from the previous month's 5.2 percent. Consumer electronics leader Sony Corp is flat at 3720 yen after posting full year earnings Thursday of 115.5 billion yen. But Sony slashed its profit outlook for the year ahead on projected weaker demand for its products. Tech-related stocks are broadly weaker, with Fujitsu off more than 4 percent in early trade. Hitachi and Toshiba are both down about 2 percent and Fuji Photo Film is off 1.85 percent at 3190 yen. Automakers Toyota and Nissan are posting losses of around 2 percent, while Honda is down 3.38 percent to 3720 yen. Big banks are in the red again, with hefty falls for Mizuho, MTFG, SMFG and UFJ. Mizuho is down 3 percent to a record low of 60,800 yen. Wall Street faltered Thursday after a lackluster forecast from health insurer AFLAC. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 0.89 percent lower at 8440.04 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was down 0.61 percent to 1457.23. Markets in Australia and New Zealand are closed Friday for the Anzac Day holiday.
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