Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 3%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Wednesday, adding to the slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling more than 3 percent to below the 37,500 level, with weakness across all sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,211.39 or 3.13 percent at 37,474.92, after hitting a low of 37,122.33 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing 6.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 4 percent and Toyota is declining more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is plunging more than 9 percent, Screen Holdings is slipping almost 8 percent and Tokyo Electron is sliding more than 7 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing more than 4 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 4 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Sony are losing more than 2 percent each, while Panasonic is down almost 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 4 percent.

Among other major losers, Socionext and Renesas Electronics are plummeting more than 9 percent each, while Furukawa Electric, Disco and Fujikura are plunging more than 7 percent each. Tokyo Electric Power and Shin-Etsu Chemical are declining almost 7 percent each, while Yokogawa Electric, IHI, Hitachi and Japan Steel Works are losing more than 6 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In economic news, the services sector in Japan continued to expand in August, and at a steady pace, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Wednesday with a services PMI score of 53.7. That's unchanged from the July reading and remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 145 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, with the major averages more than offsetting the strong gains posted last Friday. With the steep drop, the Dow pulled back well off the record closing high set in the previous session.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but continued to post significant losses. The Nasdaq plunged 577.33 points or 3.3 percent to 17,136.30, the S&P 500 dove 119.47 points or 2.1 percent to 5,528.93 and the Dow tumbled 626.15 points or 1.5 percent to 40,936.93.

The major European markets also showed more significant moves to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped 1.0 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply to a nine-month low on Tuesday on prospects of oversupply from OPEC weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $70.34 a barrel.