Decoupling is hard to do for Japan stocks still tied to the yen

Tokyo

JAPAN'S stock market is again showing itself to be handcuffed to US growth prospects and its own currency.

Ties tightened in the last week as separate selloffs exceeding one per cent befell Topix investors for no other reason than the failure of Donald Trump's healthcare overhaul. The president's setback heightened broader concerns about his stimulus agenda for the US economy, sending the yen surging towards 110 per dollar and bringing the Topix to the brink of erasing its 2017 advance.