Tokyo stocks open flat as investors await US-China summit

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened flat on Friday as investors took wait-and-see attitudes ahead of a US-China summit during the G20 this weekend.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down just 0.01% or 2.19 points at 22 260.41 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.08% or 1.38 points at 1 660.85.

"As investors step aside to wait for the US-China summit, today's focus will be whether the Nikkei index can rebound" to around 22 300, Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior market analyst at Monex, said in a commentary.

Japan's factory output in October was up 2.9% from the previous month, after a 0.4% dip in September, official data showed before the opening bell, but it had little impact on stocks or currency markets.

Separate government data confirmed the Japanese labour market continues to be tight, with the jobless rate in October at 2.4%, up slightly from 2.3% in the previous month.

The jobs-to-applicants ratio improved slightly to 1.62, meaning 100 jobs are available for every 162 job seekers.

The dollar fetched ¥113.38 in Asian trade, against ¥113.42 in New York and ¥113.30 on late Thursday.

Nissan was almost unchanged in early trade, up 0.07% at ¥985.4 after a meeting of executives from the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance confirmed the stability of the partnership.

Mitsubishi Motors was up 0.43% at ¥695.

Their rivals were higher, with Toyota up 1.26% at ¥6 981 and Honda gaining 1.90% to ¥3 202.

Steelmakers were lower after brokerage firms revised down their evaluations, with JFE off 2.61% at ¥1 993.5 and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal down 1.06% at ¥2 050.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended down 0.1% at 25 338.84.