* Nikkei slips on profit-taking after Wall Street fall
* JAL up on view that stock fell too far last week
* Trading houses lower on weak metals prices
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average slipped 1.1 percent on Monday as exporters such as Honda Motor Co fell after disappointing U.S. corporate earnings robbed the market of upward momentum sparked by earlier upbeat results.
Trading houses also fell on lower prices for metals but struggling Japan Airlines Corp rose nearly 9 percent after losing 26 percent of its value last week, staging what market players said was a rebound on a sense the stock had fallen too far.
The Sankei newspaper reported on Sunday that Japanese government task force set up to keep JAL afloat has decided to tap a state-backed institution tasked with revitalising struggling companies. "Overall, global stock markets are doing well and the yen's retreat against the dollar compared to last week's levels is contributing to a good environment for the Nikkei," said Noritsugu Hirakawa, a strategist at Okasan Securities.
"What we're seeing is just profit-taking, with Wall Street's Friday fall providing the excuse, along with a sense that the market may have risen too far, too fast." In thin trade, the benchmark Nikkei lost 114.73 points to 10,142.83 after hitting a three-week closing high on Friday. During the two weeks from Oct. 5 the Nikkei rose more than 5 percent on better-than-expected results from firms like JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The broader Topix lost 0.7 percent to 894.59.
U.S. stocks fell on Friday after disappointing results from General Electric Co and Bank of America Corp demonstrated the road to economic recovery will be bumpy.
Additional pressure came from a report showing that U.S. consumer sentiment fell unexpectedly in October, tempering optimism inspired by news of a rise in industrial production in September and reinforcing views that the U.S. economic recovery still faces some large hurdles. "Investors are waiting for earnings results from both the United States and Japan, and while there's no real reason to believe these will be bad -- especially in Japan, where some companies have been revising their forecasts upwards -- nobody really wants to buy before then," Okasan's Hirakawa said.
EXPORTERS DOWN, JAL REBOUND A broad range of exporters lost ground, with Kyocera Corp down 1.7 percent to 7,940 yen, Advantest Corp -- which makes chip testing equipment -- down 1 percent to 2,440 yen and Honda down 2.2 percent to 2,720 yen.
Sony Corp, which climbed on Friday after a brokerage upgrade, lost 1.1 percent to 2,620 yen.
Trading houses such as Itochu Corp retreated after metals, including copper, fell on Friday.. Itochu lost 3.1 percent to 600 yen, Marubeni Corp lost 2.6 percent to 458 yen and Mitsubishi Corp lost 1.7 percent to 1,952 yen.
JAL rose to 110 yen, though market players warned these gains might well be temporary in the face of the company's challenges.
"There's a lot of problems such as the cost cuts that are being demanded in areas such as pay and pensions, and since this doesn't just affect current JAL employees but its pensioners, the issues have deep roots and will take quite a long time to resolve," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.
Asahi Kasei Corp rose 2.2 percent to 468 yen after the chemical and housing maker said it is likely to report first-half operating profit 3.2 times higher than its previous forecast, buoyed by recovery in demand for plastic materials and cost cutting in its housing business.
But Casio Computer Co shares fell 7.4 percent to 704 yen after it lowered its annual outlook to an operating loss of 5 billion yen ($55 million) from its previous forecast for a 15 billion yen profit.
Casio cited a bigger-than-expected fall in sales of its mobile phones and digital cameras.
Trade was light on the Tokyo exchange's first section, with 883 million shares changing hands, compared with last week's morning average of 956 million.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones, 960 to 560. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)