BOJ Tankan Improves, but Capital Spending Still Weak

The Bank of Japan's quarterly tankan survey of business sentiment showed the head line index for large manufacturers' sentiment improved to minus 14 in March from minus 25 in December, its best reading since the failure of Lehman. Large manufactures expect the index for June to improve further, to minus 8. But the March tankan also showed that large companies plan to cut their capital expenditures by 0.4% in the fiscal year.