Headline indices of the Japan share market were in red on Friday, 26 October 2018, after wiping out early gains spurred by bargain hunting on tracking positive lead from Wall Street overnight, with all three major US indices improving between 1.6-3%, and yen depreciation to lower 112 yen-range against greenback. Total 19 issues of the TSE33 issues declined, while remaining 14 issues were in green, with shares in Services, Precision Instruments, Information & Communication, Chemicals, Electric Appliances, and Machinery issues being notable gainers, while Pulp & Paper, Transportation Equipment, Land Transportation, and Nonferrous Metals issues were notable gainers. In afternoon trades, the 225-issue Nikkei index declined 164.79 points, or 0.77%, at 21,103.94. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange dropped 8.90 points, or 0.56%, to 1,592.02.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Tokyo's core consumer price index (CPI), a leading indicator of nationwide price trends, rose 1% in October from a year earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday. The pace of gain in the core CPI, which includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices, was unchanged from September and driven largely by rising energy costs, the data showed. Tokyo's overall CPI rose 1.5% in October from a year earlier, marking the highest increase since March 2015, as vegetable prices surged 23.4%, the data showed.

CURRENCY NEWS: Japanese yen, widely viewed as a safe haven currency, appreciated against greenback on Friday. The dollar climbed to 112.61 yen from 112.44 yen.

OFFSHORE MARKET: US stock market closed higher on Thursday, thanks to Strong results from major companies including Microsoft and Visa. Some encouraging economic news helped stabilize markets. The Commerce Department said orders to U.S. factories for major manufactured goods grew in September, and the increase was larger than analysts expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 401.13 points or 1.6% to 24,984.55. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted soared 209.93 points or 3% to 7,318.34 and the broad-based S&P 500 surged up 49.47 points or 1.9% to 2,705.57.

European markets also ended higher on Thursday. The French CAC 40 Index surged by 1.6%, the German DAX Index jumped by 1%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6%.