Japan stocks seen down on U.S. worries, Wall St

TOKYO, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks are expected to fall
on Monday after a sharp rise in the U.S. unemployment rate sent
Wall Street tumbling, with high-tech firms and exporters such as
Canon Inc (7751.T) seen hit hard although short-covering could
emerge later.

One stock to watch will be Aeon Co Ltd (8267.T) after U.S.
apparel retailer Talbots Inc (TLB.N), which is owned 55 percent
by Aeon, said on Friday it will exit its Talbots Kids and Mens
lines and warned of weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter sales,
sending its shares down 11.4 percent. [ID:nN04634754]

The U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday that job
creation nearly ground to a halt in December and the unemployment
rate rose to a two-year high of 5 percent, stoking fears about
recession in the world's largest economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI saw its worst
three-day start to a year since the Great Depression. On Friday
it fell 256.54 points or 1.96 percent.

"The Tokyo market will start off with selling following the
Wall Street falls, but short-covering is likely to emerge on
expectations of a rebound in U.S. stocks later today on technical
factors," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Shinko
Securities.

"Given that the Nikkei has already fallen quite a lot it's
about time for a bit of a rebound."

The Nikkei average .N225 is expected to range from 14,400
to 14,800.

The benchmark Nikkei tumbled 4 percent on Friday to its
lowest close in 17 months, finishing at 14,691.41 after shedding
616.77 points.

In a sign of the market's likely moves, Nikkei futures traded
in Chicago 2NKc1 on Friday closed at 14,505 compared with
Friday's Osaka close of 14,660 JNIc1.
--------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2251 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 1411.63 -2.46% -35.530
USD/JPY JPY= 108.57 0.05% 0.050
10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 3.8746 -- 0.000
SPOT GOLD XAU= 859.6 0.00% 0.000
US CRUDE CLc1 97.91 0.00% -1.270
DOW JONES .DJI 12800.18 -1.96% -256.54
-------------------------------------------------------------
>US STOCKS-Market sinks as jobs data stirs recession fears [.N]
>Dollar slips after soft jobs report but off lows [USD/]
>Bonds mostly gain on payrolls, but limited by TAF [US/]
>Gold eases after rising but sentiment bullish [GOL/]
>Oil retreats from $100 record on economic worry [O/R]

STOCKS TO WATCH

-- Aeon Co Ltd (8267.T)
U.S. apparel retailer Talbots Inc (TLB.N), which is owned 55
percent by Aeon, said on Friday it will exit its Talbots Kids and
Mens lines and warned of weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter
sales, sending its shares down 11.4 percent. [ID:nN04634754]

Aeon is scheduled to announce earnings for the third quarter
after the close on Monday.

-- Toshiba Corp (6502.T), Sony Corp (6758.T)

Time Warner Inc's (TWX.N) Warner Bros studio on Friday said
it would exclusively release high-definition DVDs in Sony's
Blu-ray format, dealing a big blow to Toshiba's rival HD DVD
technology. [ID:nN04446354]

-- Sony Corp

Sony plans to add an Internet phone function to its
PlayStation Portable (PSP) game player in cooperation with eBay
(EBAY.O) unit Skype to stir up demand, the Nikkei business daily
said on Saturday. [ID:nT202082]

-- Fast Retailing Co Ltd (9983.T)

The company said on Friday that same-store sales of its
Uniqlo casual clothing chain rose 6.4 percent in December from a
year earlier after cold weather boosted sales of winter items
such as down jackets and cashmere sweaters.
-- Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T)

Toyota plans to spend 70-80 billion yen ($645-737 million) to
build a second factory in Brazil that is expected to start
operations in 2011 and will have an annual output capacity of
100,000 vehicles, the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday.

Toyota plans to make "entry family cars" at the plant. It is
now developing the automobile and plans to sell it for 800,000 to
900,000 yen, the newspaper said.

-- Seven & I Holdings (3382.T), Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T)

Seven Bank, the banking arm of Japanese retail group Seven &
I Holdings, aims to list its shares on the Jasdaq market as early
as next month and will use Nomura Securities as the lead
underwriter, a company source said on Saturday. [ID:nT202022]

-- Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T)

TEPCO, Japan's largest utility, will postpone its planned
construction of a nuclear reactor in northern Japan by one year
to comply with tougher safety rules, business daily Nikkei
reported on Saturday. [ID:nT216869]

-- TDK Corp (6762.T), Taiyo Yuden Co (6976.T)

TDK and Taiyo Yuden are separately entering the solar cell
market with low-cost products based on materials other than
silicon, the conventional material used to make solar cells, the
Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

-- Sekisui House Ltd (1928.T)

Sekisui House will use land acquired from Sony Corp in the
Shinagawa district of Tokyo to build an office building that will
have the most spacious floors for a leased property in Japan, the
Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

-- Clarion Co (6796.T)

Clarion plans to offer car navigation systems that are more
than 30 percent cheaper than current flagship models, aiming to
boost navigation system sales by 25 percent to 1 million units by
fiscal 2010, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

-- Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co (7003.T)

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding won three orders to design
and construct facilities for Exxon Mobil Corp's (XOM.N)
petrochemicals complex in Singapore, the Nikkei business daily
reported on Saturday.

The newspaper said the orders were worth 70-80 billion yen.

-- Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd (3864.T)

Mitsubishi Paper will invest around 10 billion yen by 2010 or
so to boost production of photographic inkjet paper, the Nikkei
business daily reported on Saturday.

-- Nissan Motor Co (7201.T)

India's Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (MAHM.BO) may pull out of a
joint venture with Renault SA (RENA.PA) and Nissan Motor to build
a 40 billion rupee manufacturing plant in India, media reports
said. [ID:nBOM72459]

-- Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd (4568.T)

Eli Lilly & Co (LLY.N) and partner Daiichi Sankyo said on
Friday they had asked U.S. regulators to approve prasugrel, a
blood clot preventer that is the U.S. drug maker's most important
experimental product. [ID:nN04301655]

-- Victor Co of Japan Ltd (JVC) 6792.T

JVC on Sunday unveiled an LCD TV less than 3 inches (7.620
cm) thick, calling it the world's thinnest flat-screen
television, as the Consumer Electronics Show began in Las Vegas.
[ID:nN06367648]

-- Astellas Pharma Inc (4503.T)

Astellas Pharma will likely amortise more than 58 billion yen
in goodwill over five years for its recent acquisition of U.S.
bioventure Agensys Inc, but will keep its group operating profit
target of 280 billion yen for the 2010 fiscal year unchanged, the
Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.

-- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (7011.T)

Mitsubishi Heavy plans to cut launch costs for its H-IIA
rockets by 30 percent to about 7 percent by around 2009 to boost
the competitiveness of its satellite launch business, the Nikkei
business daily reported on Monday.
($1=108.55 Yen)
(Reporting by Elaine Lies, Editing by Michael Watson)