The Nikkei Stock Average rose 550.90 points to 66,682.88 by the morning close on the 28th at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, ending near its intraday high after opening at 66,104, about 28 yen below the previous close of 66,131.98. The index moved into positive territory immediately, reaching 66,305 at 9:10 a.m. and 66,511 at 9:15 a.m., or about 379 yen above the prior close within 15 minutes. Trading remained volatile, with the Nikkei moving between 66,571 at 9:30 a.m. and 66,408 at 9:40 a.m., before recovering and reaching 66,630 at 10:20 a.m. and 66,675 at 10:45 a.m. The move followed gains in all three major U.S. indexes: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 105.56 points, or 0.20%, to 53,569.44; the Nasdaq Composite gained 411.15 points, or 1.57%, to 26,541.35; and the S&P 500 added 55.29 points, or 0.72%, to 7,730.99. Dollar-yen traded around 159.41 at the morning close and stood at 159.44 at noon, while EUR/USD was 1.1651 and EUR/JPY was 185.76. The August Tokyo CPI core index rose 1.8% year-on-year, below the 1.9% forecast and down from 2.0%, while July unemployment improved to 2.4% against a 2.5% forecast. The effective job openings-to-applicants ratio was 1.18, below the 1.19 forecast and unchanged from the previous reading. Recovery in WTI crude futures to the mid-$82-per-barrel range supported dollar buying. Finance Minister Katayama said that strengthening the international competitiveness of the Japanese economy would enhance confidence in the yen, while noting that exchange rates have multiple determinants; the comments drew no notable market reaction.