Goldman Sachs cuts Japan equity forecasts - Bloomberg

Goldman Sachs’ Strategists team led by Kathy Matsui, revised lower its three-month target for the Japanese equity markets in the latest client note.

Key Points via Bloomberg:

“The brokerage lowered its three-month target for the Topix gauge by 5.6 percent to 1,700, implying a slight decline from its current level.

Goldman also reduced its six-month and 12-month targets 2.7 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, to 1,800 and 1,950. The index closed at 1,817.56 points last year.

Foreign investors yanked 8.2 trillion yen out of Japanese stocks in the first three months of the year, mainly from futures, due to uncertainty surrounding domestic politics, a rising yen, global trade concerns and mixed macroeconomic data.

These headwinds will cap the upside for Japanese equities.

Goldman sees “limited” downside risk as the market has priced in the possibility of a 10 percent drop in earnings per share in fiscal 2018, whereas Goldman sees growth of 2.5 percent.”