TOKYO: Tokyo shares ended flat Friday, with early losses erased by a retreat in the yen while investors were also looking ahead to the release of key US jobs data later in the day.
The small gain was not enough to drag the Nikkei out of negative territory for a volatile week that saw the yen rise more than two percent against the dollar, weighing on exporters.
Investors have been wracked with uncertainty as Donald Trump's presidency gets off to an unpredictable start, including branding Japan a currency manipulator while his protectionist rhetoric has fuelled fears of a global trade war.
His comments come as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares to meet Trump on February 10 to discuss a range of issues from the economy to security.
"With the news out of Washington and the new administration ramping up even further, past Trump reflation enthusiasm has waned further," David de Garis, a senior analyst at National Australia Bank, said in a commentary.
However, after a weak start to the day Friday, Japanese stocks rallied towards the end as the yen eased slightly. The dollar firmed to 113.09 yen from 112.79 yen in New York late Thursday.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 3.62 points to 18,918.20 but lost 2.82 percent over the week. The Topix index of all first-section issues rose 0.30 percent, or 4.58 points to 1,514.99 with a weekly drop of 2.21 percent.
Eyes are now on the monthly US employment report later Friday, which will be pored over for clues about the state of the US economy. A strong reading will put pressure on the Federal Reserve to consider an interest rate hike as early as March, analysts said.
In share trading Sony surged 4.98 percent to 3,537 yen, despite its announcement late Thursday that it had halved its full-year profit forecast.
Panasonic fell 0.21 percent to 1,166 yen after saying a US unit operating in-flight entertainment and communication systems business is under investigation by US authorities for alleged violations of bribery and securities laws.
Toyota rose 0.23 percent to 6,445 yen while Toshiba was down 0.83 percent at 238.8 yen.
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal reversed earlier gains to close down 0.05 percent at 2,727.5 yen, after it upgraded its full-year profit forecast.
Toyota set to announce nine-month results on Monday and Nissan on Thursday.
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