Tokyo stocks finished lower Friday after Sony Corp. said declining prices for digital products would hurt its earnings. The U.S. dollar was higher against the yen and the euro.
The benchmark Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues lost 46.40 points, or 0.41 percent, to close at 11,238.37 points. The Nikkei lost 120.57 points, or 1.06 percent, Thursday.
The dollar bought 103.62 yen on the Tokyo foreign exchange market at 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) Friday, up 0.90 yen from late Thursday and also above the 103.35 yen it bought in New York overnight.
On the stock market, a profit warning from Sony spurred selling of shares in the electronics maker and others including Pioneer and Victor Co. of Japan.
Sony fell 3.0 percent after it slashed its operating profit forecast for the year ending March, citing declining prices for digital goods. The company said after the market closed on Thursday that it expected sales of computer chips and other components, DVD recorders, portable audio players and Vaio personal computers to decline.
The market's overall decline was relatively limited because the Sony news "wasn't that much of a shock," says Norihiro Fujito, equity strategist at Mitsubishi Securities.
Still, Pioneer lost 1.9 percent, Victor shed 2.1 percent and Toshiba fell 1.4 percent. Matsushita Electric Industrial, the maker of Panasonic products, slipped 1.0 percent.
The broader TOPIX, or the index of all issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section, shed 1.19 points, or 0.10 percent, to finish Friday's trading at 1,132.18. The TOPIX fell 10.93 points, or 0.96 percent, the day before.
Decliners outpaced advancers 733 to 691 on the first section, while 171 issues ended unchanged. Trading volume declined to 1.409 billion shares from 1.511 billion shares Thursday.
In New York overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 68.50, or 0.65 percent, to 10,471.47 on Thursday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 27.71, or 1.34 percent, to 2,045.88.
In currencies, the U.S. dollar rose in Asian trading as players bought the currency on relief the U.S. inaugural ceremonies ended safely and on growing speculation about rising interest rates in the United States.
"Some traders, fearing something might happen at the inauguration ceremony, were reluctant to buy dollars. The safe conclusion (to the ceremony) unleashed some dollar-buying," said Masaki Fukui, senior vice president of forex at Mizuho Corporate Bank.
The euro fell to US$1.2974 Friday afternoon in Tokyo from US$1.2986 late Thursday. Against the Japanese currency, the euro rose to 134.55 yen from 133.64 yen.
The yield on Japan's benchmark 10-year government bond dipped to 1.3450 percent from Thursday's finish of 1.3500 percent. Its price rose 0.05 to 100.48 points.