Tokyo stocks open lower on Wall St. fall amid rate hike worries

Tokyo stocks opened lower Thursday, with sentiment dampened by an overnight fall on Wall Street after the strong U.S. consumer price index fueled concerns the Federal Reserve will aggressively raise interest rates. In the first 15 minutes of trading, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average fell 55.02 points, or 0.21 percent, from Wednesday to 26,423.75. The broader Topix index was down 8.28 points, or 0.44 percent, at 1,880.57. On the top-tier Prime Market, decliners were led by insurance, bank and mining issues. At 9 a.m., the dollar fetched 137.61-66 yen compared with 137.38-48 yen in New York an...