"Once oil prices stop rising, the uncertainty on global economic conditions and corporate earnings will subside," Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at Nikko Cordial Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires. But Monex market analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama said: "Investors still do not clearly know which direction to take." He said the market's focus was on whether civil protests would materialise in Saudi Arabia later this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.66 percent Monday. The euro firmed to $1.3974 in Asian trade from 1.3971 in New York late Monday, while it edged up to 114.98 yen from 114.90 yen. The dollar stood at 82.28 yen, slightly up from 82.25 yen. Kyocera was up 1.55 percent at 8,510 yen on a Barclays Capital upgrade. Medical equipment maker Terumo rose 2.78 percent to 4,620 on its $2.63 billion acquisition of major US blood transfusion technology firm CaridianBCT. Hitachi rose 2.57 percent to 518 after Western Digital agreed to acquire its hard disk drive business for about $4.3 billion in cash and stock. However Sony was off 0.99 percent at 2,897 yen and Sharp fell 1.20 percent to 822.