TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average edged down on Wednesday, with investors booking profit after two straight days of gains as they awaited fresh economic cues from the US and Japan.

The Nikkei declined 0.4% to 39,077.04 by the midday break, after closing up nearly 2% the previous day.

The broader Topix was down 0.6% at 2,735.97. Japan’s major technology shares got off to a solid start before slipping as investors secured profit after Tuesday’s large gains.

The market was also weighing escalating trade tensions after the United States’ latest crackdown on China’s chip sector.

AI-focused startup investor SoftBank Group shed 2.5%, and chip-making equipment giant Tokyo Electron slid 0.6%, while chip peer Advantest gained 0.8%.

Wall Street ended mixed overnight, offering limited momentum to Japanese equities. With monetary policy meetings in both the US and Japan coming up later this month, economic news was in focus, said Kenji Abe, chief strategist at Daiwa Securities.

The US jobs report will be released on Friday, while the US CPI and the Bank of Japan’s “tankan” survey are due later this month.

“I think investors are paying a lot of attention to those,” said Abe. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will also speak later on Wednesday.

Among individual shares, Uniqlo parent firm Fast Retailing climbed 0.8% to offer the overall Nikkei support.

Japan’s Nikkei makes U-turn to eke out gains as bank shares rise

The company said on Monday that Uniqlo’s domestic same-store sales in November increased 12.2% compared to the same month last year.

Ryohin Keikaku jumped 5.6% after the Muji retail stores operator also reported a rise in domestic retail and online store sales last month compared to a year ago.

Shares of pharmaceutical firm Eisai tumbled 4.5% on news that Biogen expects growth of its Alzheimer’s disease drug, Leqembi, to see a “linear trend” in the United States in the near term. Biogen sells Leqembi with Eisai.

Automakers stumbled, with Subaru and Nissan Motor both losing about 3.3%.