. >> senior vice minister for reconstruction koichi tani offered a public apology. >> translator: i find the remarks made by the senior reconstruction agency official inappropriate. >> the agency questioned the official on wednesday who admitted to posting the comments on twitter. >>> tokyo traders are sitting on the edge of their seats. on thursday they were flooded with sell orders and the nikkei plunged to its lowest level in two months. even so, wall street ended higher. ai uchida joins us from the business desk. good morning. what's the sentiment now? >> good morning, catherine. they seem to be focusing on positive news. on wall street u.s. stocks rallied snapping three days of declines, investors were encouraged by strong retail sales and the dow jones ended higher by 1. % at 15,176 points. let's see how scrap knees markets are kicking off this friday, we go to elene lee at the tokyo stock exchange. this marked the second steepest fall on thursday. how are investors reacting today. >> good morning, ai. investors seemed to be very encouraged by developments in the u.s.. let's look a