Tokyo stocks closed down on profit-taking Monday after last week’s session ended with rallies, as investors eye global economic indicators due this week.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.99 percent, or 289.33 points, to 28,860.08, while the broader Topix index slipped 1.26 percent, or 24.46 points, to 1,922.98.

“It’s natural for investors to lock in profits after last week’s gain,” Yoshihiro Okumura of Chibagin Asset Management told AFP.

On Friday, the Nikkei index jumped more than two percent on rises in US shares and a cheaper yen.

“Investors are taking a wait-and-see attitude ahead of key economic indicators, including US jobs data, due later this week,” Okumura said.

“Trading is expected to remain range-bound for now as market players await fresh news,” he added.

The dollar fetched 109.71 yen in Asian afternoon trade against 109.84 yen in New York late Friday.

Nissan dropped 2.56 percent to 539.1 yen after a report said the Japanese carmaker and Chinese-owned battery maker Envision AESC will invest more than 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in new battery plants for electric vehicles in Japan and Britain.

Its bigger rival Toyota fell 0.21 percent to 9,115 yen with Honda down 3.31 percent at 3,353 yen.

SoftBank Group lost 1.57 percent to 8,256 yen while Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing fell 0.73 percent to 89,170 yen.

Top cashew producer Ivory Coast aims to process more of its own crop for sale in the huge American market, From a “triangular trade” that sees its nuts shelled in Asia before being shipped to the US.

Starting from the present yearly average of just 10 percent, producers aim to shell half by 2025, Adama Coulibaly, director of the Cotton-Cashew Council.

This year alone the country’s capacity should increase by 100,000 tonnes.

But processing more nuts domestically will mean a shift away from traditional export relationships, which currently see most raw nuts sent to Vietnam and India.

Until now, “triangular trade” has left the shelling up to workers there before the nuts were shipped to the United States at “an exorbitant price”, said Losseni Kone, president of Ivory Cashew, an American firm specialising in cashew certification and trade.

“The American market is worth 40 percent of world capacity, but accounts for just one percent of imports of Ivorian nuts,” added the Maryand-based entrepreneur.

Business prospects are promising if the country can get all the steps worked out.

“There is no cause for concern about the cashew market in the USA. We love it. Ivorian cashew is the best,” Association of Food Industries (AFI) president Bob Bauer told AFP, promising the group would “help” producers.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) says it has concluded arrangements to issue award letters to successful investors in the 2020 marginal field bid round programme that seeks to improve the oil and gas Industry.

The DPR said the letters would be issued at an award ceremony scheduled to hold in Abuja on May 31.

Head, Public Affairs, DPR, Paul Osu, made the announcement in a statement on Saturday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a marginal field is any field that has reserves booked and reported annually to the DPR and has remained unproduced for a period of over 10 years.

Mr Osu said the successful investors who would be receiving their award letters were companies that had fully satisfied all requirements listed in the marginal field bid round guidelines.

He said this included full payment of signature bonuses within the specified time frame.

Nigeria has signed an offshore oil deal with Shell, Exxon, Total and Eni, that the state says will generate millions, settle disputes and open the way to a $10 billion investment.

The “Execution of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 118 (Bonga) Agreements” was signed Tuesday by the local subsidiaries of the four oil majors and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and exporter, has been hit hard by a combination of falling crude prices and the global pandemic.

“This marks a watershed in the administration of deepwater operations in Nigeria,” the NNPC said on Twitter.

“Over $10bn of investment will be unlocked as a result of this development.”

The offshore oil block OML 118 situated 120 kilometres (75 miles) off the coast includes Bonga, the largest deep-water project to commence production in Nigeria.

Bonga produced 90,000 barrels per day in February, below its maximum capacity of 225,000 bpd, and the new deal could lead to an expansion of the field’s capacity.

The agreement also brings “immediate income for government in the excess of $780 million”, NNPC Chief Mele Kyari said, and an opportunity to resolve a $9 billion which he did not specify,

Kyari said in a speech that he hoped the agreement would be an “opportunity for investors to see that this country is open for business.”

OPEC-member Nigeria draws only a fraction of oil and gas investments in Africa as it struggles with a reputation for inefficiency, corruption and high operating costs.

The WTO has agreed to establish an expert panel to resolve a row between Malaysia and the European Union over rules affecting the consumption of palm oil-based biofuels in the bloc.

Malaysia had requested a World Trade Organization arbitration panel back in January, charging that the EU, and in particular member states France and Lithuania, had imposed restrictive measures on the use of palm oil that violate international trade agreements.

Brussels blocked the initial demand for a panel, but the second request was granted Friday during a meeting of the organisation’s Dispute Settlement Board, according to a Geneva-based trade official.

Under WTO regulations, parties in a dispute can block a first request for the creation of an arbitration panel, but if the parties make a second request, it is all but guaranteed to go through.

Malaysia, the world’s second-largest producer of palm oil, initially filed a complaint with the WTO last July, balking at EU efforts to phase out its use as a biofuel.

The EU has embarked on a major plan committing member states to build a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, including by promoting the use of biofuels.

But it has deemed that palm oil production is not sustainable, and palm oil-based biofuels cannot be counted towards EU renewable targets.

By doing so, the bloc and its member states “confer unfair benefits to EU domestic producers of certain biofuel feedstocks, such as rapeseed oil and soy, and the biofuels produced therefrom, at the expense of palm oil and oil palm crop-based biofuels from Malaysia,” according to Kuala Lumpur’s complaint last year.

Palm oil is a key ingredient in a wide range of products from food to cosmetics but it has long been controversial.

Environmentalists say it drives deforestation, with huge swathes of rainforest logged in recent decades to make way for plantations.

Its use in food and cosmetics has already dropped in Europe, partly due to pressure from green groups on major corporations, but has been increasing in biofuels.

The OECD raised its 2021 global GPD growth forecast Monday but warned that “too many headwinds persist” as not enough Covid vaccines are reaching emerging economies.

The world economy will expand by 5.8 percent this year, up from a previous estimate of 5.6 percent, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a report.

This follows a massive global recession last year that was caused by lockdowns and travel curbs imposed by governments.

“It is with some relief that we can see the economic outlook brightening, but with some discomfort that it is doing so in a very uneven way,” OECD chief Laurence Boone said in the report.

The recovery is uneven so far, with the United States and China returning to pre-pandemic levels and forecast to have much stronger growth than other major economies such as Japan and Germany.

The 38-nation organisation, whose members account for 60 percent of global gross domestic product, applauded the rapid reaction of governments to prop up the economy.

Boone said it was “very disturbing” that not enough vaccines were reaching emerging and low-income economies.

“This is exposing these economies to a fundamental threat because they have less policy capacity to support activity than advanced economies,” she said.

The warning comes as the emergence of more contagious coronavirus variants has raised concerns around the world, with India battling.

“As long as the vast majority of the global population is not vaccinated, all of us remain vulnerable to the emergence of new variants,” Boone said.

However, it is evident enough that world policy agency such as the OECD is also serving as a strong voice in the push for global drive for vaccination and using it as criteria to a meaningful and sustainable global growth partern.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Saturday, Britain will build what it is calling a new “national flagship” vessel to host trade events and promote its post-Brexit interests around the world,

The ship will provide a global platform for high level trade negotiations as well as British businesses’ products, his office said, as the United Kingdom seeks new trading ties after leaving the European Union last year.

It will also be expected to play a role in delivering the country’s foreign and security policies, including by hosting summits and other diplomatic talks.

It will be the first so-called national flagship in service since 1997, when the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned.

However, Johnson insisted the new vessel’s role will be “distinct” from those of forerunners, “reflecting the UK’s burgeoning status as a great, independent maritime trading nation”.

“Every aspect of the ship, from its build to the businesses it showcases on board, will represent and promote the best of British — a clear and powerful symbol of our commitment to be an active player on the world stage,” he said in a statement.

The ship’s construction is expected to begin in 2022 and be completed within four years, with its costs confirmed following a competitive tendering process, according to Johnson’s office.

The vessel, yet to be named, will be crewed by the Royal Navy and earmarked for around 30 years’ service.

The government is likely to face calls to name it after Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s late husband and a former navy commander, who died in April aged 99.

Britain formally left the EU after nearly five decades of membership in January 2020, and quit its single market and customs union at the start of this year.

It has replicated or rolled over existing trade agreements with the bloc, Japan and several other countries, but is yet to strike an entirely new deal with any country.

London is currently in advanced discussions with Australia and has held initial talks with India, New Zealand and the United States about future pacts.