It wasn’t going to be a great day for Tokyo stocks anyway, what with Wall Street retreating and the yen rising overnight (currently ¥101.83 vs. around ¥102.30 yesterday). But then factor in the fact that most blue chips begin trading ex-dividend today, and we have the Nikkei Average down 1.4% in the early minutes, with the Topix off 1.5%. Among the big names trading without rights to the latest dividend payout: Sony is down 2.5%, Panasonic is down 2.3%, Hitachi is down 1.9%, NEC is down 1.9%, Softbank is down 1.6%, and Honda Motor is down 2%. Nissan is down 1.2%, with the auto maker recalling close to 1 million ... (full story)