Masafumi Nakayama Quotations

Gainers outnumber losers and sentiment is not bad. But investors are keeping away from large-cap technology stocks right now, as it's hard to see where the U.S. market is going.

Last week, beside a sell-off in the 30 shares being excluded, there was broad, index-based selling to make way for the more expensive shares coming in. Now the market figures it was overdone.

Bad-loan disposal is the single most important task for banks at the moment. Apparently, the market is sending a cheer to Asahi's efforts.

It's too early to sound an all-clear on banking shares. If the Bank of Japan decides to raise interest rates, they'll be hit again.

Investors initially guessed Japan's high-techs were quite independent of the U.S. market, but everyone's been quite worried since there have been so many profit warnings.