text: Nikkei rebounds on short-covering, buying before ex-dividend - Reuters
  March 26, 2019 / 2:44 AM / 3 months ago
  Nikkei rebounds on short-covering, buying before ex-dividend
  * Nintendo soars on report it plans to release 2 versions of Switch console
  TOKYO, March 26 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei bounced from five-week lows on Tuesday morning as cyclical stocks rose on short-covering following a sell-off the previous day driven by fears of a sharp global economic slowdown.
  With the end of the business year-end looming on March 31 for a majority of listed Japanese companies, the market was also underpinned by investor purchases of stocks before they go ex-dividend later in the day.
  The Nikkei share average jumped 1.8 percent to 21,363.27 in midmorning trade, after tumbling 3 percent on Monday.
  On Monday, benchmark 10-year Treasury yields fell to their lowest levels since December 2017, while the yield curve between three-month bills and 10-year notes inverted further as investors continued to assess last week's dovish pivot by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
  "In the short-term, an inversion of U.S. yields will likely keep worrying investors," said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities. "But in the longer term, investors are concerned about Japan-specific problems such as the yen's level which has been trading at a higher level against the dollar than last year."
  Exporters rebounded, with Yaskawa Electric rising 2.4 percent, Advantest Corp up 2 percent and Panasonic Corp bouncing 2.9 percent.
  Nintendo Co jumped 5 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company plans to launch two new versions of its Switch gaming console as early as this summer, citing people familiar with the matter.
  Renesas Electronics jumped 4 percent after the company said it will buy back up to 10 billion yen of its own shares.