Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Wednesday, giving up some of the strong gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 37,800 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 321.60 or 0.84 percent at 37,741.32, after hitting a low of 37,605.83 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are down more than 2 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down almost 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is gaining almost 3 percent and Sony is edging up 0.3 percent, while Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Shiseido is declining 4.5 percent and Tokyo Electric Power is losing almost 4 percent, while Taiheiyo Cement and Fujikura are down more than 3 percent each. OKUMA, Lasertec, Dai-ichi Life, Furukawa Electric, Daikin Industries, Hitachi Zosen, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Renesas Electronics, Sumitomo Chemical and Trend Micro are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Seven & I Holdings is gaining more than 3 percent and Nichirei is adding almost 3 percent.

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

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually ending the day modestly lower.

The major averages finished the session well off their worst levels of the day but still in the red after trending higher over the past several sessions. The Dow dipped 61.56 points or 0.2 percent to 40,834.97, the Nasdaq fell 59.83 points or 0.3 percent to 17,816.94 and the S&P 500 slipped 11.13 points or 0.2 percent to 5,597.12.

The major European markets have all also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped 1.0 percent, the German DAX Index fell by 0.4 percent and the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower on Tuesday, losing for a third straight session, although the downside was far less pronounced compared to the previous two sessions. Concerns about the outlook for demand from China, and easing geopolitical tensions weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $0.33 or about 0.44 percent at $74.04 a barrel.