Japan Stocks Rebound As Yen Heads Back Down

Japanese stocks bounced back up in Friday morning action, with the Nikkei Stock Average higher by 0.7% and the broader Topix rising 0.6%, mainly on the back of currency moves. A day earlier, the Nikkei Average had ended with a 0.9% loss after joining the U.S. dollar in an afternoon pullback -- the greenback bought �114.31 at the end of the Thursday stock session, down from an intraday high of �115.50, according to Dow Jones Newswires. But on Friday morning, the dollar was back up at �115.09, juicing the currency-sensitive blue chips in particular. Sony Corp. rebounded by 2%, Nikon Corp. rose 1.7%, Japan Display Inc. added 2.8%, Toyota Motor Corp. traded 1.2% higher, and Mazda Motor Corp. was up 1.4%. On the other hand, Suzuki Motor Corp. fell 5% after reporting its first decline in operating profit in eight quarters. Panasonic Corp. was up 1% after its president said in a Nikkei interview that the tech major was planning to make some strategic investments earlier than originally planned. But Hitachi Ltd. underperformed the advance with a 0.1% rise, with a separate Nikkei report saying the company planned to sell about half of its minority stake in U.S. hard-drive maker Western Digital Corp.