Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably lower on Wednesday, adding to the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 38,200 level, with weakness across most sectors led by automakers, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 293.22 or 0.76 percent at 38,148.78, after hitting a low of 38,134.90 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly lower on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is down more than 1 percent, while Screen Holdings is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is edging up 0.5 percent, while Canon is edging down 0.1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent and Panasonic is declining almost 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Mitsubishi Chemical is losing almost 5 percent, while Tokyu, Mazda Motor and Nissan Motor are declining more than 4 percent each. Hino Motors and Mitsubishi Motors are down almost 4 percent each, while GS Yuasa, JTEKT, Fanuc, Furukawa Electric, Nikon, Nissan Chemical and SMC are all declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Oriental Land and Keisei Electric Railway are gaining almost 6 percent each, while Resonac Holdings is adding more than 4 percent. Chugai Pharmaceutical is advancing more than 3 percent, while Kansai Electric Power and Fujitsu are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 152 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved to the upside over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after turning in a mixed performance early in the session. The Dow recovered from early weakness to end the day at another new record closing high.

The Dow fell by as much as 0.7 percent in early trading but ended the day up 123.74 points or 0.3 percent at 44,860.31. The S&P 500 also climbed 34.26 points or 0.6 percent to a record closing high of 6,021.63, while the Nasdaq rose 119.46 points or 0.6 percent to 19,174.30.

The major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.9 percent, the German DAX Index fell by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index declined by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Tuesday following reports Israel and Hezbollah are closer to reaching a cease-fire agreement within the next few days. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed down $0.17 at $68.77 a barrel.