Toyota Upgraded, Mitsubishi UFJ Rating Maintained

Japanese stocks soldoff on concern over a possible Fed rate hike announcement and the news about BP's (BP) Prudhoe Bay oil production shutdown. Even an analyst upgrade of Toyota (TM), which reported record quarterly earnings after Friday's market close in Tokyo and an upward revised financial forecast of Mitsubishi UFJ (MTU) couldn't stop the bleeding for two of Japan's biggest publicly traded firms.

FISCO news service of Japan reports that Mizuho Securities upgraded Toyota to a "1" from a previous rating of "2." It maintained its target share price of 7,200 yen (ADR equivalent of $125.) Mizuho sees strength in North America and Europe as covering any weakness in Asia, which I interpret to mean specifically in Japan were overall sales are lower for most auto makers but Toyota nonetheless still added to its #1 ranked market share. Toyota's ordinary shares (Tokyo: 7203) lost 0.82% on Monday, closing at 6,030 yen ($104.88) while its ADRs closed at $108.14 on Friday. In intra-day trading Toyota is down 2.13% at $105.84. Click here for a recap of Toyota's record Q1 earnings.

Merrill Lynch Japan maintained its "buy" rating and 1,710,000 yen (ADR equivalent of $14.87) target on Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU) (Tokyo: 8306). ML raised its full-year financial forecast based on Mitsubishi UFJ's Q1 earnings and expectation of a positive impact from a rising interest rate environment. Mitsubishi UFJ ordinary shares lost 2.53% Monday to close at 1,540,000 yen ($13.39). Its ADRs closed Friday at $13.68 and are currently trading 2.1% lower intra-day at $13.39. See a summary of Mitsubishi UFJ's Q1 earnings here.

Toyota Motor Corp (TM) 1-year chart (intra-day A.M.):

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU) 1-year chart (intra-day A.M.):