Share prices closed slightly lower as investors remained cautious before major US companies release their earnings results later today, dealers said. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed down 48.05 points or 0.4 pct at 13,352.24, while the broader-based TOPIX index of all First Section shares lost 0.73 point or 0.05 pct at 1,392.69. Decliners led gainers 946 to 594, with 122 issues unchanged. Volume traded reached 3.04 bln shares, up from 2.68 bln shares yesterday. To some extent, the market's downside has been supported by the weak yen, which hit a two-year low against the US dollar today, dealers said. At one point the dollar rose to 115.39 yen, its highest level since Sept 19, 2003, which market watchers attributed to growing expectations that interest rate differentials between Japan and the US are set to widen further. When the equities market closed, the dollar stood at 115.35 yen. "We had thought that the dollar would not top the 115 level, but it did," said Ryuta Otsuka, a strategist at Toyo Securities. "Now they have to think differently." In the US, big corporations such as Intel and Yahoo will report their results for the July-September quarter later today. In Japan, technology firms such as Matsushita Electric, Sony, Sharp and Toshiba will report their results for the first half to September next week. "Japanese investors are reluctant to chase the market sharply higher ahead of the the start of the corporate reporting season in Japan," said Shinko Securities equity strategist Tsuyoshi Segawa.