The Japanese stock market opened higher on Monday, but slipped into negative territory in early trades and is currently trading flat. Meanwhile, a strong yen weighed on exports. Investors are also treading cautiously amid the release of corporate earnings reports from major companies.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 6.09 points or 0.03 percent to 20,026.13, after earlier touching a low of 19,909.86 and a high of 20,069.24.
Among the major exporters, Sony Corp. (SNE) is losing 1.5 percent despite the Nikkei business daily reporting that the company's group operating profit is expected to more than quadruple to about 300 billion yen for the year ending March 2016.
Meanwhile, Sharp is edging down 0.4 percent. Nikon Corp. and Panasonic are adding 1.6 percent each.
In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent and Casio Computer is lower by 1.6 percent. Fanuc is up 1 percent and Hitachi is edging up 0.2 percent.
Softbank is edging down slightly, while market heavyweight Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo clothing stores, is down 0.3 percent.
In the auto sector, Honda (HMC) is lower by 0.4 percent, Toyota (TMC) is declining 0.7 percent and Nissan is edging down 0.04 percent.
Among banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MTU) is down 0.6 percent, while Mizuho Financial (MFG) is declining 0.2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing 0.1 percent.
Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. and Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn plan to launch a cloud computing business in China and other countries, the Nikkei business daily reported. Shares of NEC are gaining more than 4 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Mitsui Chemicals and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings are gaining almost 4 percent each, while Mitsui Mining & Smelting is adding almost 3 percent. Meanwhile, Tokyo Tatemono is down almost 1 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 118 yen-range on Monday, down from the lower 119 yen range at close on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks saw some further upside during trading on Friday. Benefiting from strength among tech stocks following strong earnings results, the Nasdaq extended a recent uptrend to reach a new record closing high.
While the Nasdaq advanced 36.02 points or 0.7 percent to 5,092.08, the Dow crept up 21.45 points or 0.1 percent to 18,080.14 and the S&P 500 rose 4.76 points or 0.2 percent to 2,117.69.
The major European markets all moved to the upside on Friday. While the German DAX Index climbed by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2 percent.
U.S. crude oil ended lower on Friday, but was still at a four-month high, even as fighting in Yemen threatens to embroil the entire region with the ongoing civil war seen as a proxy fight between oil powers Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Crude oil futures for June delivery, the most actively traded contract, dropped $0.59 or 1.0 percent, to settle at $57.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday.
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