The Nikkei Stock Average opened 251.94 points, or 0.38%, lower at 65,604.49 on Aug. 26 as investors cut risk ahead of Nvidia’s earnings, a pivotal test of the artificial-intelligence trade, with Advantest and Tokyo Electron declining while SoftBank Group and Sony Group posted modest gains. U.S. equities also slipped, with the Dow off 0.06% to 53,547.68, the S&P 500 down 0.14% to 7,666.88 and the Nasdaq lower by 0.20% to 26,099.576; Nvidia shares dipped about 0.4% in early trading before its fiscal second-quarter results. July Personal Consumption Expenditures data showed headline inflation steady at 3.7% year-over-year, above the 3.6% consensus, while core PCE was unchanged at 3.3%, pushing futures-implied odds of a September Federal Reserve rate hike to roughly 42%–44%. Second-quarter U.S. GDP growth was confirmed at a 1.5% annualized rate, and analysts looked for about $92 billion in Nvidia revenue, up roughly 96% from a year earlier, leaving markets balancing AI-sector resilience against sticky inflation and tighter policy risk.