TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) — Japan’s benchmark Nikkei stock average opened at 19438.81 on Wednesday (February 15) up 1.04 percent from the close the day before as Wall Street set record highs overnight after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen spoke in support of an interest rate hike next month, while the dollar hovered near three-week highs.
Yellen said on Tuesday that the Fed will probably need to raise interest rates at an upcoming meeting in March, and that delaying rate increases could leave the Fed’s policymaking committee behind the curve.
Yellen’s comments boosted U.S. bank stocks, helping push Wall Street indexes to record highs overnight.
However market players tell Reuters that reports of trouble at Toshiba on Tuesday have weighed down gains on the Tokyo market, keeping the average below the 19,500 yen level.
Shares in Toshiba Corp tumbled on Wednesday after the conglomerate said it would book a $6.3 billion hit to its U.S. nuclear unit and may sell more of its prized flash-memory chip business than planned to urgently raise funds.
