Japan Stocks Weaken, With Sony, Honda Among Decliners

Japanese stocks bobbled lower in early Wednesday trade, with a small rebound for the yen seemingly accounting for much of the loss. The Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.2% in early moves, though off its early lows of the session, while the Topix fell 0.1%. The downward motion came as the yen nosed higher overnight, with the dollar easing to �117.75 from �117.94 around the time of the previous stock close, while Dow Jones Newswires reported net selling at the six foreign brokerages it tracks. As usual, the blue chips with large global exposure helped lead the market's losses, with Toshiba Corp. down 1%, Advantest Corp. off 1.1%, and Japan Display Inc. falling 1.2%. Stock in Sony Corp. , which had surged 6.1% the previous day, was down 1.4% amid likely profit-taking, and probably not helped by news it would offer $12 million in refunds and other compensation to U.S. consumers who bought its PlayStation Vita hand-held gaming console, settling charges with the Federal Trade Commission. And Honda Motor Co. -- which had risen Tuesday, shrugging off news that it had failed to report over 1,700 death and injury incidents to regulators -- saw its stock retreat 2.8%. Energy shares tracked the sell-off in crude-oil futures, with Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. down 1.6%, Inpex Corp. off 1.2%, and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. weaker by 1.1%. And on the upside, Skymark Airlines Inc. added to its gains from a day earlier on talks of a tie-up with Japan Airlines Co. , gaining another 4.4%. JAL shares were flat.