Tokyo stocks fell for a third straight day Monday, with the benchmark Nikkei index closing down 0.54 percent as U.S. economic growth data missed market expectations, sending Japanese exporters and electronics makers lower on cloudy earnings outlooks.

Strategists here said that preliminary data released by the U.S. Commerce department on Friday showing that the world's largest economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.8 percent, largely dictated investors' moves here on Monday.

They said that despite U.S. growth increasing in the final three months of 2011, accelerating away from the 1.8 percent annual rate logged in the previous quarter, the figure still came in lower than median economists' forecasts for a 3 percent increase.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner tried to allay market concerns stating that the U.S. economy was still recovering form the 2008 global recession, but noted that downside pressures still remain and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future, particularly regarding the debt crisis in the eurozone and oil prices from tensions in the Gulf region.

He added however that while average Americans were in debt and housing, construction and unemployment figures downbeat, he expected growth to bounce back to between 2 and 3 percent in 2012.

"The U.S. GDP wasn't very strong and the yen strengthened against the dollar, so the market should weaken a little. Stocks have been rising since the middle of this month and now investors may want to sell to lock in profit," said Kiyoshi Ishigane a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co.