Market Report – Toyota, Nikkei Up

In today’s market report… shares of beleaguered automaker Toyota jumped more than 5 percent on hopes its plans to fix nearly 4.5 million cars would help the world No.1 to recover.

Fighting to preserve its reputation for quality, Toyota said it will restart production February 8th after a one-week shutdown at six North American plants and recall, expected to cost up to $2.2 billion.

Toyota, which will report earnings Thursday, had a 17 percent U.S. market share in 2009, but is now under siege from other carmakers offering incentives to its customers.

The benchmark Nikkei rose on the Toyota news, which dovetailed with a weaker yen against the U.S. dollar, helping Japanese exporters like Sony.

Markets across Asia took heart from strong U.S. manufacturing numbers, which also boosted oil and metals prices.

Australian shares gained while the local dollar dipped, after the central bank kept interest rates steady at 3.75 percent, a surprising move after three straight hikes.

NTDTV