"All the publicity generated by the big Japanese purchases have given owners a false sense of what their properties are worth."

It is also one of the biggest Japanese purchases of an American company.

Intermediate and longer-term issues were buoyed by the inflation report and the Japanese purchases.

According to government data, Japanese purchases of foreign securities surpassed 15 trillion yen, or $124 billion, in the first eight months of this year.

Reduced Japanese purchases would mean less demand for dollars to buy the bonds.

But the selling stopped abruptly after talk about big Japanese purchases began to develop.

Last week many analysts cautioned against reading too much into the Japanese purchases.

It would also be the second Japanese purchase within a year of a stake in a large American securities company.

Others analysts argued that a slowdown in Japanese purchases would not have a major impact.

Japanese purchases of American companies jumped sharply in the first half.