Japanese Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Adding to the gains in the previous session, the Japanese market is modestly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 39,400 level, with gains in index heavyweights and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 125.01 points or 0.32 percent to 39,402.97, after touching a high of 39,616.59 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent and Honda is also adding almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is losing almost 1 percent, while Advantest and Screen Holdings are declining more than 1 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding almost 2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is adding almost 1 percent, Sony is edging up 0.1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 2 percent, while Panasonic is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among other major gainers, Nikon is gaining more than 3 percent.

Conversely, Aeon is plummeting more than 9 percent, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is declining almost 5 percent and Fujikura is losing more than 3 percent.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were unchanged in September, the Bank of Japan or BoJ said on Thursday - versus expectations for a decline of 0.3 percent following the 0.2 percent drop in August. On a yearly basis, producer prices rose 2.8 percent - exceeding forecasts for an increase of 2.3 percent and up from 2.6 percent in the previous month.

Export prices fell 0.4 percent on month and rose 0.5 percent on year, the bank said, while import prices slumped 1.3 percent on month and 0.4 percent on year. The foreign exchange rate slumped 2.0 percent on month.

The BoJ also said the value of overall bank lending in Japan was up 2.7 percent on year in September, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday - coming in at 624.24 trillion yen. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 2.9 percent and down from 3.0 percent in August. For the third quarter of 2024, overall lending was up 3.0 percent on year, lending excluding trusts rose 3.3 percent and lending from trusts was up 0.6 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 149 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks started off on a somewhat flat note on Wednesday, but gained in strength as the day progressed, as investors assessed the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting, and looked ahead to the nation's consumer price and producer price inflation data for more clarity on interest-rate trajectory.

The major averages all closed on a buoyant note, with the Dow and S&P 500 moving on to fresh record highs. The Dow ended with a gain of 431.63 points or 1.03 percent at 42,512.00, the S&P 500 closed up 40.91 points or 0.71 percent at 5,792.04 and the Nasdaq settled higher by 108.70 points or 0.6 percent to 18,291.62.

The major European markets also ended the day higher on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended higher by 0.65 percent, Germany's DAX gained 0.99 percent and France's CAC 40 ended 0.52 percent up.

Crude oil prices fell Wednesday after data showed a big jump in crude inventories which outweighed possible supply disruptions due to Hurricane Milton and Middle East tensions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November fell $0.33 or 0.45 percent at $73.24 a barrel.