JAPAN DATA: The average price of regular gasoline in Japan this week fell to
Y145.5 ($1.78) per liter, or $6.76 per gallon, from Y145.7 last week, marking a
ninth straight weekly fall, data from the Agency for Natural Resources and
Energy showed. The average retail price this week was 1.3% above the Y143.7 per
liter price seen a year earlier, a 13th straight week of year-on-year rise,
following a 1.5% gain in the previous week.