Japan stocks rise on hopes for global economy

Carrie Reinheimer. November 28, 2008. 8:38am

The Japanese are starting to see a brighter future and hopes that it stick with them. Optimism that a prolonged global economic downturn will be averted lifted Japanese stocks Thursday, following an aggressive interest rate cut in China and assurances by President-elect Barack Obama for a swift economic rescue plan. Overnight, U.S. markets reversed losses after Obama pledged he would have an economic plan on his first day in office. After filling more spots on his economic team, Obama declared: "help is on the way." The Dow Jones industrials rose 2.9 percent to 8,726.61. Securities companies were among the day's biggest winners, with Nomura Holdings Inc. surging 5.3 percent to 680 yen and Daiwa Securities Group Inc. up 6.3 percent. Still, investors were reluctant to drive stocks much higher amid ongoing concerns about the yen's strength and the latest terrorist attacks in India, said Mitsushige Akino, fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management in Tokyo.” The U.S. is spending money right now on measures to boost the economy," he said. "If geopolitical risks rise, like terrorism, then it will probably have to spend even more money in response. Then that will only further weaken the dollar." Japanese exporters in particular have been hit hard this year by the stronger yen, which reduces profits earned abroad and makes their products more expensive in overseas markets. Shares of Panasonic Corp. declined 4.7 percent to 1,284 yen on speculation that it planned to slash its profit outlook, which it announced after the market closed. Blaming the "rapid appreciation of the yen," the Osaka-based company now expects net profit of 30 billion yen from its previous forecast of 310 billion yen.
It is good to see the hope is some countries reach. If only this would happen for the whole world it would be a better place. Hopefully since the reason Japan is doing so good has something to do with us and our new president we will be able to see hope in our country too. There is so far to go that it is hard to imagine when everything will be back to where it use to be and at a stable level.

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