Japan Stocks Drop After U.S. Unexpectedly Loses Jobs (Correct)

By Masaki Kondo


(Corrects to say futures fell in last paragraph.)

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's stocks fell after the U.S. unexpectedly lost jobs in February, adding to concern the world's biggest economy has entered a recession.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker by market value, fell 1.9 percent, while Canon Inc., the world's biggest digital-camera maker, tumbled 1.1 percent.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 56.11, or 0.4 percent, to 12,726.69 as of 9:03 a.m. The broader Topix index lost 5.31, or 0.4 percent, to 1,242.46.

``It's hard to remove concern Japan's stock market will decline even further,'' Tomochika Kitaoka, a strategist at Mizuho Securities Co., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

U.S. payrolls fell by 63,000, the most in five years, after a revised decline of 22,000 in January, the Labor Department said on March 7. Economists had estimated payrolls to rise by 23,000. The jobless rate dropped to 4.8 percent, reflecting a shrinking labor force as some people gave up looking for work.

Nikkei futures expiring in March fell 0.6 percent to 12,690 in Osaka and lost 0.7 percent to 12,685 in Singapore.