Today's major economic release from Japan was the Leading Economic Index. The July numbers printed at 50.0%, considerably higher than the expected 44.4%, but still shy of June's rate of 63.6%. The Coincident Index came in line, but was down significantly, registering at 22.2% vs. the 100% in June. This data may provide new evidence of a slowdown in Japanese economy and possibly imply that the newfound optimism in the Japanese markets may be short-lived. In equities, The Nikkei closed up 0.24 percent during the morning session on Wednesday. Sony Corp. was one of the principal gainers after it announced that it would part of its investment in online brokerage Monex Beans Holdings. The electronics giant saw its shares record a 1.6 percent gain. Major exporters also saw a rise in their share values as crude slipped below $66 a barrel. Toyota Motor Corp. added 0.7 percent and Suzuki Motor Corp. followed suit with a 1.3 advance. The Nikkei finished the session up 30.83 points to 12,630.26. In securities, the yield on the 1.4 percent bond due in September 2015 gained 1bp to 1.33 percent as investors shied away from fixed-income assets and towards the booming Nikkei. Recently, the expansionary-like environment of bond yields are show signs of stabilization and are which taking a toll on JGB prices.