Nikkei inches down on trade worries; Murata shines

TOKYO, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average
slipped in subdued trade on Monday, pressured by concerns that
Sino-U.S. trade talks may make little headway this week,
although moderate U.S. jobs growth in September offered some
support.
The benchmark Nikkei .N225 ended down 0.2% at 21,375.25
points, while the broader Topix .TOPX ended flat at 1,572.75,
with trading volume hitting the lowest in two months.
High-level U.S.-China trade talks are scheduled to resume
Thursday and Friday, when Chinese Vice Premier Liu He meets U.S.
Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin in Washington.
Hours before the Tokyo market open, Bloomberg reported that
Chinese officials were signalling they were increasingly
reluctant to agree to a broad trade deal pursued by U.S.
President Donald Trump. "Many investors have adopted a wait-and-see stance ahead of
upcoming U.S.-China high-level trade talks," said Kyoko Amemiya,
senior market advisor at SBI Securities.
Yen-sensitive exporters led the market lower, with
Bridgestone 5108.T , Denso 6902.T and Canon Inc 7751.T
losing 1.8%, 1.7% and 1.4%, in that order.
Rubber products .IRUBR.T and mining .IMING.T were among
the worst performers in the Tokyo bourse's 33 sector subindexes,
down 1.6% and 0.8%, respectively.
Elsewhere, Apple-related Japanese electronic parts maker
Murata Manufacturing 6981.T climbed 1.6% to become the
third-most traded stock on the main board by turnover on
expectations of strong demand for the iPhone.
The Nikkei business daily reported that Apple Inc AAPL.O
had told suppliers to increase their production of its latest
iPhone 11 range by up to 10%, citing sources. Wall Street stocks surged on Friday after moderate U.S. jobs
growth in September offered some relief from a spate of dismal
economic data that week, with technology stocks led by Apple
lifting the benchmark indexes. .N