Overnight

Some might call it the end of summer doldrums, others investors waiting to see what Fed Chair Janet Yellen says on Friday and still others blame low interest rates pushing investors further out on the equity limb looking for yield.

The Nikkei rose 0.7% Wednesday helped by a weaker yen and a stronger dollar in a mixed market. Since the first of the year the Nikkei has lost 13% versus the S&P 500's 7% upswing, trailing most of its global peers in 2016. It always helps to get a little help from your friends and that's what happened earlier this week.
 
Reuters reported: On Monday and Tuesday, the BOJ bought 1.2 billion yen of exchange traded funds on each day focused on companies which support investment in physical and human capital. The central bank had bought 70.7 billion yen of ETFs on August 4 and 10, respectively.
"A level of more than 70 billion yen in buying can be as big as a launch of a mutual fund," said Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. "It's supporting the market, but the Nikkei could be trading 1,000-1,500 points lower than the current level when the currency market sees the 100-yen-per-dollar level."

In  other markets, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2%, while the South Korea Kospi was down 0.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.7%, with the Shanghai Composite Index flat.Trading volume was another issue, light over what some view as the end of summer holidays.The broader Topix gained 0.5 percent to 1,304.25 and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 advanced 0.5 percent to 11,717.82. In the oil markets, the WSJ noted: oil prices were down in Asian trade early Wednesday, after the industry group American Petroleum Institute said that its data showed an increase of 4.5 million barrels in U.S. crude stockpiles last week. Still, prices rose in U.S. trade Tuesday on speculation that Iran might cooperate with other global exporters to keep oil prices from falling.

Official U.S. oil data by the Energy Information Administration will be released later Wednesday to shed more light on the state of U.S. stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate crude prices were recently down 53 cents at $47.57 a barrel in Asia trade, while Brent crude prices were down 41 cents at $49.55 a barrel.

Higher U.S. interest when and if the come will most likely pull money away from Asian markets giving American consumers a chance to fill up their garages with more cheap imported junk. Gold was down slightly at $1336.80