Japan's core machinery orders rose for the first time in three months in April but by less than expected as the economy struggles to exit a soft patch amid a cautious start to the new business year, official data showed Friday.
Core domestic private-sector machinery orders, a closely watched gauge of corporate capital spending and one of the key drivers of the economic recovery, rose 2.2 percent in April from March, the government said.
The report disappointed investors hoping for a 4.4 percent rise after March's 4.5 percent drop, contributing to a sharp fall in Japanese share prices as investors sweated also about recent losses on Wall Street.
Year-on-year, core domestic orders, which exclude particularly volatile demand from power companies and for ships, were down 9.0 percent in April, after falling 5.8 percent in March, the Cabinet Office said.
The fact that the orders at least rose in April makes it more likely that the three months to June "will not be so disastrous" as previously thought, said Taro Saito, senior economist at NLI Research Institute. Last month, the Cabinet Office forecast that core machinery orders would tumble 11.8 percent in the three months to June from the previous quarter.