TOKYO: Tokyo stocks ended flat Wednesday after swinging through the day, but loss-hit Toshiba soared by more than 22 percent on hopes for the sale of its prized microchip business.
Trade began on a high after Wall Street's three main indexes finished at new records for the seventh time in eight sessions.
Buying was powered by hopes that US president Donald Trump would soon unveil details of a major tax cut plan, perhaps at his February 28 address to a joint session of Congress.
Rising oil prices and strong eurozone economic data also boosted sentiment.
But the early gains fizzled as caution set in and the yen ticked up, which is bad news for Japanese exporters.
The dollar weakened to 113.55 yen from 113.69 yen in New York.
"Moves to chase higher prices were limited with dollar buying losing steam and a wait-and-see mood spreading ahead of President Trump's Congressional address," Olasan Online Securities said in a commentary.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index was barely moved, inching down 1.57 points to 19,379.87 while the Topix index of all first-section issues ticked up 0.10 percent, or 1.49 points, to close at 1,557.09.
Market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain, fell 0.95 percent to 35,270 yen, and banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial was down 0.27 percent at 771.9 yen, but Toyota rose 0.38 percent to 6,503 yen.
Toshiba soared 22.31 percent to 224.7 yen on expectations for a planned sale of a stake in its microchip business, and after the 31.4-billion-yen sale of its medical finance unit to Canon. Canon rose 1.03 percent to 3,305 yen.
Japan's Nikkei business daily said Wednesday that Toshiba had asked potential bidders to peg its chip division's value at at least two trillion yen.
The sale is seen as crucial for Toshiba to raise cash as it struggles with multi-billion-dollar losses in its US nuclear unit. The firm has warned it is investigating the division's accounting.
Rakuten jumped 9.39 percent to 1,129.5 yen after Japan's leading etailer said it would purchase more than eight percent of its own stock.
Share buybacks reduce the number of outstanding stock and tend to boost a firm's value.
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