Midday Nikkei is Hot, N225 Futures up 230

Blue chip exporters are leading the rally. Thank the Dow — 13,000?! Domestic oriented stocks and most financial stocks are weak — one exception of strength is ORIX (JP: 8591) (IX). There’s a clear and present preference. We’re still seeing bullishness in Kyocera (JP: 6971) (KYO) and TDK (JP: 6762) (TDK), but surprised to see weakness in Nidec (JP: 6594) (NJ). Sony (JP: 6758) (SNE) and Nintendo (JP: 7974) (NTDOY.PK) are both at/near new highs (multi-year in the case of Sony, all-time for Nintendo). Strength pretty much across the board with autos. So it’s lunch time in Tokyo and the Nikkei 225 is up 0.94% to 17,617.51, N225 futures +1.32% to 17,640 and TOPIX 1st Section +0.68% to 1,721.69. I hate to say it, but no surprise here, JASDAQ -1.01% to 78.56! // Get ready for earnings season. Don’t forget the N225 is still about 700 points shy of its multi-year high set in February before the global sell-off.