Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly higher on Thursday, recouping some of the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving a tad above the 25,900 level, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, with strong gains in technology stocks as traders reacted to minutes from the US Fed's recent monetary policy meeting.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 183.71 points or 0.71 percent to 25,900.57, after touching a high of 25,947.10 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining 1.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging up 0.3 percent and Honda is adding almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining almost 3 percent, Tokyo Electron is surging more than 4 percent and Advantest is advancing more than 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent and Panasonic is edging down 0.2 percent, while Sony is gaining almost 3 percent and Canon is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Nippon Sheet Glass is gaining almost 6 percent, while Rakuten Group and Z Holdings are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sapporo Holdings is losing 3.5 percent, while T&D Holdings and Resona Holdings are declining almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, the monetary base in Japan was down 6.1 percent on year in December, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday - coming in at 617.222 trillion yen. That follows the 6.4 percent decline in November and marks the fourth straight month of contraction. The monetary base was down 6.5 percent on year in the fourth quarter of 2022, and it was up 1.5 percent for all of last year.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 131 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw wild fluctuations over the course of the trading session on Wednesday before eventually finishing the day mostly higher. The major averages spent much of the day swinging back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages all finished the day in positive territory after starting off the New Year on a negative note. The Dow rose 133.40 points or 0.4 percent to 33,269.77, the Nasdaq climbed 71.78 points or 0.7 percent to 10,458.76 and the S&P 500 advanced 28.83 points or 0.8 percent at 3,852.97.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index surged by 2.2 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday, extending recent losses as worries about energy demand amid rising fears of a global recession continued to weigh on the commodity. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended down $4.09 or 5.3 percent at $72.84 a barrel.