TOKYO – Tokyo stocks fell on Tuesday, extending falls on Wall Street ahead of a US Federal Reserve decision and with markets weighing worries over the latest coronavirus variant.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.73 percent, or 207.85 points, to 28,432.64, while the broader Topix index lost 0.22 percent or 4.32 points at 1,973.81.

“Investors were in a wait-and-see mode” ahead of the US central bank decision due on Wednesday, Okasan Online Securities said in a note.

The Fed is widely expected to lay out an accelerated timetable for scaling back stimulus in the face of the highest consumer price inflation in decades.

That would open the door to an interest rate increase by mid-2022 or earlier.

Falls in US stocks also weighed on the Tokyo market, analysts said, after Britain bolstered its response to Omicron as it announced the first fatality from the variant.

The dollar fetched 113.56 yen in Asian trade, compared to 113.58 yen in New York on Monday.

Toyota jumped 2.14 percent to 2,045 yen ahead of a presentation on its electric vehicle strategy on Tuesday.

Honda advanced 0.60 percent to 3,184 yen while Nissan dropped 2.81 percent to 535.1 yen.

Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing tumbled 2.72 percent to 67,860 yen while SoftBank Group slid 0.87 percent to 5,522 yen.

Nippon Steel climbed 0.35 percent to 1,852 yen while JFE Holdings slipped 0.35 percent to 1,410 yen, after a report said Washington has made an offer to Tokyo aimed at resolving disputes over tariffs imposed on Japanese steel and aluminium under former president Donald Trump in 2018.

A separate report in the business daily Nikkei said Nippon Steel is looking to buy electric furnaces in Thailand as a way to cut CO2 emissions.