* Nikkei down 3.21 pct, touches a 2-week low
* Tech shares slip after Apple's slide hurts U.S. counterparts
By Shinichi Saoshiro
TOKYO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks touched a two-week low on Tuesday, with technology firms coming under heavy selling pressure after shares of Apple Inc tumbled.
The Nikkei .N225 , however, pared its losses by the close and was off a session low of 21,484.65 - its weakest since Oct. 30 - on reports China and the United States have resumed high levels talks. The benchmark ended the day down 2.06 percent at 21,810.52. MKTS/GLOB
Weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC , Apple AAPL.O shares fell 5.0 percent on Monday after several suppliers to the company, including Lumentum Holdings Inc LITE.O , cut their forecasts. turn, Apple-linked shares in Tokyo retreated. Japan Display Inc 6740.T sank 9.5 percent, Murata Manufacturing Co 6981.T lost 4.7 percent, Minebea Mitsumi 6479.T slid 3.1 percent and TDK Corp 6762.T lost 6.2 percent.
Other technology shares also fell in the wake of the overnight U.S. retreat, with Tokyo Electron 8035.T falling 1.8 percent, Screen Holdings 7735.T shedding 5.5 percent and Advantest Corp 6857.T losing 3.2 percent. Sony Corp 6758.T was down 2.6 percent.
"There were two bearish factors that weighed down today, first was the drop by Apple and second was the weak machine tool orders data. Electronic stocks and machinery makers therefore suffered," said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Securities.
Orders for the country's machine tools fell in October for the first time since November 2016, according to data released by the Japan Machine Tool Builders Association on Monday.
Robot maker Fanuc Corp 6473.T lost 4.2 percent and electric tool manufacturers Makita Corp 6586.T and Jtekt Corp 6473.T shed 5.7 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. The electric machinery subindex .IELEC.T dropped 2.6 percent.
Automakers sagged following news that the U.S. Commerce Department submitted draft recommendations to the White House on its investigation into whether to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported cars and parts on national security grounds. Motor Corp 6523.T lost 2.4 percent, Nissan Motor Co 7201.T dropped nearly 2 percent and Honda Motor 7267.T was down 2.1 percent.
Toshiba Corp 3740.T bucked Monday's trend and rose 4.1 percent after announcing that it would repurchase up to 192.6 million shares, or 30 percent of its outstanding stock. of Tokyo's 33 subindexes were in the red.
The broader Topix .TOPX was down 2 percent at 1,638.45.
"A fair number of factors are weighing on the market currently, such as seeming weakness in some U.S. tech giants and lingering worries about the Chinese economy," said Yoshinori Shigemi, global market strategist at JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) Asset Management. (Editing by Shri Navaratnam)