Japan’s Machinery Orders Rebound as Recession Eases

By Jason Clenfield and Keiko Ujikane

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese machinery orders rose for the first time in four months in June and the current-account surplus widened, the latest signs that the nation’s worst postwar recession is easing.

Orders climbed 9.7 percent from May, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo, more than the 2.6 percent expected by economists. The surplus more than doubled from a year earlier to 1.15 trillion yen ($11.8 billion), expanding for the first time since February 2008 as exports improved.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced, extending its rally in the past month to 13 percent as the global recession abated and cost cuts helped earnings at companies from Honda Motor Co. to Sony Corp. exceed analysts’ expectations. Even so, a separate report showed corporate bankruptcies increased in July, signaling unemployment may soon rise to a postwar high.

“We shouldn’t be too optimistic about capital spending yet,” said Yoshiki Shinke, a senior economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “Companies are still burdened with excess labor and capacity and the outlook for the economy is uncertain.”

The Nikkei rose 1.1 percent, its highest close since Oct. 3. The yield on 10-year government bonds rose 2.5 basis points to a seven-week high of 1.455 percent. The yen traded at 97.25 per dollar at 3:26 p.m. in Tokyo from 97.39 before the machinery report.

Election This Month

Prime Minister Taro Aso is struggling to steer the economy toward a recovery as his ruling Liberal Democratic Party trails the opposition Democratic Party of Japan in polls ahead of an Aug. 30 election. A separate report today showed sentiment at merchants rose to a 22-month high, bolstered by the stock- market gains and Aso’s 25 trillion yen in stimulus spending.

Machine orders, an indicator of capital investment in the next three to six months, will fall 8.6 percent in the current quarter, the government said. June’s gain was mostly due to a purchase of equipment used to generate nuclear power. Without that, orders would have risen about 2 percent or 3 percent, said Shigeru Sugihara, head of statistics at the Cabinet Office.

Today’s figures add to signs the global economy is recovering from the worst recession since the Great Depression. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped for the first time in 15 months in July, prompting Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman to say yesterday that the economy “may be in the beginning of an upturn.” Analysts expect data next week will show the European economy shrank at a slower pace last quarter.

Global Stimulus

More than $2 trillion in spending by governments worldwide has stabilized global demand, helping Japanese manufacturers such as Kubota Corp., which is selling more farming equipment in China. Japan’s factory production rose 8.3 percent last quarter, rebounding from a record 22.1 percent plunge in the previous period.

The current-account surplus rose 144 percent in June from a year ago, the Finance Ministry said. Exports fell 37 percent, less than the 42.2 percent in May. Imports slid 43.8 percent.

The world’s second-largest economy probably grew for the first time in a year last quarter, expanding at an annualized 3.8 percent pace after a record 14.2 percent contraction in the first quarter, according to the median estimate of 20 analysts.

Companies have raised earnings predictions and beaten analysts’ expectations over the past month. Some 15 percent of firms listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange raised first-half earnings estimates since June, according to Tokyo-based Shinko Research, while 10 percent cut projections.

Honda, Sony

Honda Motor, Japan’s second-largest carmaker, last month reported net income of 7.5 billion yen in the quarter ended June 30, compared with a 40 billion yen loss forecast by analysts. Sony posted a net loss of 37.1 billion yen, half the 80 billion yen shortfall analysts predicted.

“The worst is definitely over in terms of earnings, but the incentive to invest is very limited in a world in which production levels are so low,” said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo.

Toyota Motor Corp. last week narrowed its loss forecast for the current business year, citing government incentives introduced in Japan, the U.S. and Europe to encourage car- buying. The company still estimates it will sell 3 million fewer cars than it has the capacity to build. The automaker plans to cut capital spending 36 percent this year.

Smaller firms are struggling to get access to cash that would keep them in business. Corporate bankruptcies climbed 1.02 percent in July from a year earlier to 1,386 cases, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said in Tokyo today.

“Financial conditions aren’t stable yet on the whole,” said Masayuki Kichikawa, chief Japan economist at Merrill Lynch & Co. in Tokyo. “Corporate funding is improving among large companies, but not yet at small businesses.”

Kichikawa said the increase in business failures puts pressure on the unemployment rate, which climbed to a six-year high of 5.4 percent in June, close to a record 5.5 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jason Clenfield in Tokyo at jclenfield@bloomberg.net; Keiko Ujikane in Tokyo at kujikane@bloomberg.net