Tokyo Stock Up 0.18% by Break

Kontak Perkasa - AFP (10/10) -- Tokyo stocks rose 0.81 percent Thursday morning as the yen weakened and the White House moved to convene meetings with leading members of Congress to end a budget stand-off. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 113.14 points to 14, 150.98 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares was up 0.75 percent, or 8.72 points, at 1,175.62. President Barack Obama on Wednesday invited Republican and Democratic lawmakers to the White House to try to work through budget disagreements that have resulted in the partial shutdown of the government. The impasse threatens to cause a debt default if the two sides fail to raise the borrowing limit by and October 17 deadline. On currency markets, the dollar was supported by Obama's formal nomination of fiscal dove Janet Yellen to become the next head of the Federal Reserve. The dollar rose to 97.62 yen from 97.37 yen in New York Wednesday. A weaker yen tends to lift the Japanese stock market as it helps boost profitability among the country's major exporters. Data Thursday showed Japanese machinery orders -- a key indicator of corporate capital spending -- rose 5.4 percent on-month in August, beating expectations. Consumer confidence figures are due later Thursday. On Wall Street the S&P 500 and Dow were slightly higher, but a sell-off in tech stocks sent the Nasdaq lower, following a two percent plunge on Tuesday.