Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Tuesday, reversing the gains in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling a tad below the 38,300 level, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 483.32 points or 1.25 percent at 38,296.82, after hitting a low of 38,020.08 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is declining more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 5 percent, Screen Holdings is declining more than 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is slipping almost 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing 1.5 percent, Mizuho Financial is down more than 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is declining more than 2 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic is losing almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 3 percent, Canon is down almost 1 percent and Sony is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the other major losers, Fujikura is plunging more than 6 percent, Lasertec is losing more than 5 percent, while Furukawa Electric and Mercari are declining almost 5 percent each. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Sumco, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan Motor, IHI and Disco are slipping more than 4 percent each, while Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are down almost 4 percent each. Mitsubishi and NTT Data Group are sliding more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Haseko, ZOZO, Kao, Toray Industries, Keisei Electric Railway and Sapporo Holdings are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were up 2.9 percent on year in October, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday. That's up from the upwardly revised 2.8 percent increase in September (originally 2.6 percent) and exceeded expectations for a gain of 2.5 percent.

On a monthly basis, producer prices jumped 0.8 percent after dipping 0.1 percent in the previous month. Excluding international transportation, producer prices rose 3.1 percent on year and 0.8 percent on month.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 154 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave back some ground over the course of the trading day on Monday but managed to close mostly higher after showing a strong move to the upside early in the session. While the major averages pulled back off their best levels of the day, the Dow still reached a new record closing high.

The Dow closed higher for the fourth consecutive session, jumping 440.06 points or 1.0 percent to 44,736.57. The S&P 500 extended its winning streak to six sessions, climbing 18.03 points or 0.3 percent to 5,987.37, while the Nasdaq rose 51.18 points or 0.3 percent to 19,054.84.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index closed just above the unchanged line, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday, weighed down by reports that Israel and Hezbollah are likely to reach a cease-fire agreement within the next few days. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $2.30 or 3.2 percent at $68.94 a barrel.