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| - Tokyo's Nikkei index closed lower on Friday, extending a rout on Wall Street, where investors were disappointed by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's response to inflation fears. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slid 0.23 percent or 65.79 points to end at 28,864.32, but the broader Topix index was up 0.61 percent or 11.44 points to 1,896.18. "Investors were discouraged by the rise in US 10-year Treasury yields," Mizuho Securities said. Okasan Online Securities said morning losses on the Nikkei index "grew bigger, pulled down by market heavyweight shares such as Fast Retailing". "But the losses narrowed as shares were bought back in the afternoon," it said. Buybacks were also seen on the Topix index as the market was boosted by a weaker yen. The dollar rose to 108.20 yen in Asian trade from 107.95 yen in New York and 107.12 yen in Tokyo late Thursday. Investors were also monitoring China's National People's Congress, which opened Friday, analysts said. Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing dropped 3.38 percent to 95,870 yen after a brokerage firm revised down its evaluation of the shares. Sony gained 1.53 percent to 11,215 yen while SoftBank Group was flat, edging up 0.04 percent to 10,055 yen. Automakers were higher with Toyota climbing 0.59 percent to 7,969 yen and Nissan jumping 2.35 percent to 604.2 yen. Honda was up 1.60 percent after it said it will launch the world's first level-three self-driving cars. Vehicle autonomy is classified along a scale from 0-5, with 5 indicating essentially total autonomy. On Wall Street, all three major stock indices closed lower after investors were disappointed by Powell's speech, despite the central bank chair saying price increases are not an immediate concern. Apparently markets wanted more, and the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes spiked to 1.55 percent, the highest this week and near the peak of the past year -- igniting a stock sell-off with the Dow ending down 1.1 percent at 30,924.14. kh-nf/kaf/jfx
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