Japanese Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly lower on Tuesday after being in the green in most of the morning session, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 26,900 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by weakness in technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 32.02 points or 0.12 percent at 26,839.25, after touching a high of 27,010.29 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is adding more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are down almost 1 percent each. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are higher, with Sony edging up 0.5 percent, Canon gaining more than 1 percent and Panasonic edging up 0.2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is flat. Among the other major losers, M3 is losing almost 3 percent, while Z Holdings, Sumco, Recruit Holdings and Rakuten Group are declining more than 2 percent each.

Conversely, Pacific Metals and Mitsubishi Motors are surging almost 5 percent each, while Inpex is gaining more than 4 percent. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, JGC Holdings, Credit Saison, T&D Holdings and Idemitsu Kosan are up almost 4 percent each, while Kobe Steel, Mitsui Fudosan, Komatsu, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Mitsubishi Estate are adding more than 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 135 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks closed lower on Monday after spending much of the day's session in negative territory as investors largely stayed cautious. They reassessed the expected path of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes amid falling inflation expectations.

The major averages all ended in the red with the Nasdaq posting a more pronounced loss. The Dow ended down by 62.42 points or 0.2 percent at 31,438.26, the S&P 500 settled lower by 11.63 points or 0.3 percent at 3,900.11, while the Nasdaq closed lower by 83.07 points or 0.72 percent at 11,524.55.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.69 percent and Germany's DAX surged up 0.52 percent, while France's CAC 40 ended 0.43 percent down, failing to hold early gains.

Oil futures settled higher on Monday, extending gains from the previous session amid slightly easing worries about outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $1.95 or 1.8 percent at $109.57 a barrel.