Japan Stocks Pull Up From Opening Loss; Sony Rises On China News

Japanese stocks took a bungee jump early Wednesday, with an opening loss for the Nikkei Average melting away in the first half-hour to leave the benchmark flat, despite sizeable losses overnight on Wall Street and a gain for the yen, and despite a 0.7% loss implied by Singapore-traded Nikkei futures ahead of the open. The Topix was down 0.2%, though this was still better than most other major Asian markets. Still, the market suffered from the fact the the dollar rose overnight against all other major currencies ... except the yen. As the dollar eased to �121.14, down from an intrasession high of �122.04 during Tokyo trade Tuesday, many of the blue-chip exporters headed south: Nidec Corp. lost 1.1%, Konica Minolta Inc. fell 0.9%, Nissan Motor Co. retreated 1.1% -- possibly exacerbated by a sharp decrease for its Russian sales -- and Panasonic Corp. eased 0.7% lower. Shares of Sony Corp. rebounded from an opening loss to rise 0.4%, possibly helped by a late Tuesday announcement that it will launch its PlayStation 4 videogame console in China on March 20 after a previous delay. And in an apparent case of "buy the rumor, sell the news," shares of FamilyMart Co. belly-flopped 5.1% lower as the company confirmed previously reported plans to merge with smaller rival UNY Group Holdings Co. in September 2016. Shares of UNY edged 0.1% lower.