World Markets were primarily down on Wednesday, but Japanese stocks did manage a recovery to close higher for the first time in three days as the yen lost some ground against the greenback after achieving its highest level since 1995 this week.
Stocks in Japan,were buoyed by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's cabinet approving a 5.09 trillion yen stimulus package on Tuesday as an answer to the continued strength of the yen.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 closed up 9.65 points, or .10%, to 9,387.03.
The world’s largest carmaker, Toyota Motor Corp. is pondering raising the prices of some of its export models in the U.S. to counter the impact of the strong yen. Models that Toyota is considering a price hike on include the 2012 Prius hybrid, Lexus and Corolla. Shares of Toyota rose by 1.5% in Wednesday trading.
With a pullback in the yen helping exporters, shares of Honda Motor, which gets more than 75% of its revenue from outside Japan, climbed 1.9%.
Fuji Heavy Industries saw its shares climb 5.3% after reporting profits that nearly doubled estimates.
In China, stocks dropped the most in six weeks as commodity and consumer companies fell on concern recent market gains were excessive and chatter over the impact of the upcoming U.S. asset-purchase program.
The Shanghai Composite closed down 44.49 points, or 1.46%, to 2,997.05.
Jiangxi Copper Co. fell 3.83% while industry giant, PetroChina Co. dropped 2.08% to lead resourced based laggards.
Gree Electric Appliances Inc. led declines for consumer companies with a fall of 3.39%.
Citigroup gave China Vanke Co., the Country’s biggest developer a hand by stating that property curbs will not have a lasting impact on demand. Shares of China Vanke climbed 2.56%.
The Hang Seng fell; losing 436.66 points to close at 23,164.58.
Property stocks led the laggards in Hong Kong as speculation about curbing housing costs once again was in the news.
Sun Hung Kai Properties closed down 1.5% and Henderson Land dropped 1.7%.
Elsewhere, the smaller markets were mixed on Tuesday.
South Korea's Kospi gained .51% to 1,909.54.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed down by .847% to 4,648.100.
India's Sensex lost 1.07%.
Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 2.17 points to 1,499.11.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index dropped 29.64 points.
Shenzhen Composite closed red; down 1.008% to 1,349.245.
Taiwan's Taiex slipped 52.19 points.
Singapore's Straits Times Index gave back 1.21%.
New Zealand's NZX 50 dropped by .16%.
Philippine shares were up by .129%.
Shares in Thailand closed down by 1.213%.
