Tokyo stocks slip as markets reopen after holiday

Tokyo stocks fell in early deals Friday as traders played catch-up with losses on global equity markets after a long public holiday.

The retreat followed a weak lead from Wall Street on Thursday, as dealers largely stayed on the sidelines ahead of a key US jobs report scheduled for release later in the day that investors hope will ease fears of slowing global growth.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index slipped 0.39 percent, or 62.79 points, to 16,084.59 in early deals, erasing opening gains.

The broader Topix index of all first-section shares lost 0.27 percent, or 3.57 points, to 1,296.39.

The dollar on Friday took a break from its slide against the yen earlier in the week. That helped to minimise losses as Japan's markets resumed trading after three days' holiday, analysts said.

"It's not as bad as it could have been with Japan coming back and that's been helped by a bit of weakening in the yen during the past couple of days," Angus Nicholson, a Melbourne-based market analyst at IG, told Bloomberg News.

"If we see a strong non-farm payrolls number tonight it will help the dollar move in the right direction and help Japanese equities."

A weaker yen boosts Japanese exporters' profitability and tends to increase demand for their shares.

On Friday, the greenback fetched 107.34 yen against 107.26 yen late Thursday in New York and 106.56 yen in Tokyo on Monday, before the public holidays.

On Wall Street, the Dow eked out a 0.1 percent gain at the close, while the S&P 500 finished less than 0.1 percent lower and the Nasdaq was down 0.2 percent.