Nikkei Down on Profit Taking, Expect Most ADRs to Trade Lower, Gainers Watch for: (SANYY, MTU)

Everyone wondered when the profit-takers would out number the buyers. It happened today despite a strong end to the morning session; the afternoon was pretty much down hill with a sharp drop at closing leaving all but four of the major 30 or so ADRs in the red. I don't expect we'll see too much profit taking tomorrow depending on how the U.S. exchanges do today.

Nikkei: -127.93 (-0.82%) closed at 15,423.38, opened 30+ points lower than prior close of 15,551.31, intra-day high of 15,572.72, intra-day at closing

TOPIX: -6.23 (-0.39%) closed at 1,591.34, opened a little over 1 point lower than prior close of 1,597.57, intra-day high of 1,603.07, intra-day low of 1,588.48

JASDAQ: +0.91 (+0.80) closed at 115.32, traded between 114.45 and 115.56

Yen: Last posted rate at Y121/US$1, 32-month low for yen against dollar, boosting exporter stocks' currency conversion profits but hurting U.S. dollar-based investors in funds such as iShares Japan ETF (ticker: EWJ), see this piece by David Fry from earlier today

Today's advancers and decliners among Tokyo Stock Exchange traded stocks with ADRs:

* Advancers: Sanyo Electric (SANYY) +2.97%, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU) +2.52%, NTT DoCoMo (DCM) +0.55%, Kirin Brewery (KNBWY) +0.46%

* Decliners: Advantest (ATE) -3.59%, Sony (SNE) -2.63%, Pioneer (PIO) -2.61%, Kubota (KUB) -2.45%, Honda Motor (HMC) -2.11%, TDK (TDK) -1.90%, Millea Holdings (MLEA) -1.90%, Nomura Holdings (NMR) -1.82%, Hitachi (HIT) -1.81%, NEC (NIPNY) -1.67%, Kyocera (KYO) -1.53%