Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (62547)	4/1/2002 4:04:42 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

apan Business Confidence Steady; Slow Recovery Seen (Update6) By Yoshiko Matsushita, with reporting by Ann Saphir quote.bloomberg.com Tokyo, April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese business confidence was unchanged in the first quarter, dashing expectations of an improvement and signaling the world's second-biggest economy may not emerge from 17 months of recession as soon as anticipated. Pessimists outnumbered optimists 10 to 1, leaving the index of confidence among large manufacturers at minus 38 last quarter, the Bank of Japan's Tankan survey showed. Economists expected it to rise to minus 35. Confidence among retailers and other non- manufacturers, which do most of their business at home, held steady at minus 22. While Fujitsu Ltd. and other large manufacturers expect business to improve this quarter as the U.S. recovery gathers pace, retailers such as Daiei Inc. expect little improvement as domestic demand sags. Their pessimism shows the limitations of Japan's reliance on exports to snap a recession, causing stocks and the yen to fall. ``If things don't go as expected with exports, then the whole scenario of a recovery collapses,'' said Shuji Shirota, an economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. ``Personal spending isn't going to a lead a recovery, and capital spending got worse.'' The yen had its biggest decline in a week, falling to 133.19 to the dollar from 132.73 in New York on Friday.