Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Wednesday after opening in the green, extending the slight losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to stay a tad above the 38,700 level, with weakness in some index heavyweights amid a spike in global bond yields.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 153.79 or 0.40 percent at 38,701.58, after hitting a low of 38,675.11 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.2 percent and Toyota is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 3 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Panasonic is declining almost 1 percent and Canon is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among other major losers, Tokyo Electric Power is declining almost 5 percent and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is losing almost 4 percent, while Teijin and LY slipping more 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sompo Holdings is gaining more than 4 percent, while Hoya and Konami Group are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 157 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, the Nasdaq and the Dow turned in a mixed performance throughout much of the trading day on Tuesday after moving in opposite directions early in the session. While the Nasdaq briefly joined the Dow in negative territory in afternoon trading, the tech-heavy index rebounded to end the day at a new record closing high.

The major averages ended mixed, The Nasdaq climbed 99.09 points or 0.6 percent to 17,019.88, adding to the strong gain posted last Friday. The S&P 500 also inched up 1.32 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,306.04, while the Dow slid 216.73 points or 0.6 percent to 38,852.86, extending the sharp pullback seen last week.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index declined by 0.5 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 0.8 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices rose Tuesday on hopes demand for oil will pick up in the U.S. driving season, and on expectations that OPEC will extend its production cuts into the next quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $2.11 or 2.7 percent at $79.83 a barrel.