Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 staying above the 27,600 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with traders booking profits after the recent winning streak ahead to the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision on Wednesday. Japan also confirmed its first monkeypox case.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 59.44 points or 0.21 percent at 27,639.81, after hitting a low of 27,538.39 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 3 percent , while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.3 percent and Toyota is flat.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging up 0.1 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are edging down 0.4 percent each. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 1 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging up 0.4 percent each.

The major exporters are mixed, with Sony and Mitsubishi Electric edging up 0.5 percent each, while Canon is losing more than 1 percent and Panasonic is down almost 1 percent. Among the other major losers, Omron is losing almost 3 percent.

Conversely, JGC Holdings is gaining almost 4 percent and Inpex is adding more than 3 percent, while Idemitsu Kosan and Hitachi Construction Machinery are up almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, members of the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Board agreed that the country's economy has picked up in recent months, minutes from the central bank's meeting on June 16 and 17 revealed on Tuesday. The bank noted that inflation has stabilized around 2 percent, the minutes showed - mainly due to increases in food and energy prices.

At the meeting, the central bank left the policy rate unchanged at -0.10 percent as expected and reaffirmed that it will purchase a necessary amount of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) without setting an upper limit so that 10-year JGB yields will remain at around zero percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 136 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks ended on a mixed note on Monday after a choppy session as investors largely stayed cautious, looking ahead to some key earnings updates, the GDP data and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement.

The major averages ended mixed. The Dow ended with a gain of 90.75 points or 0.28 percent at 31,990.04, and the S&P 500 settled with a gain of 5.21 points or 0.13 percent at 3,966.84, while the Nasdaq finished with a loss of 51.45 points or 0.43 percent at 11,782.67.

European stocks also turned in a mixed performance. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 0.41 percent and France's CAC 40 gained 0.33 percent, while Germany's DAX drifted down 0.33 percent.

Crude oil futures settled sharply higher on Monday as concerns about outlook for energy demand eased, while the dollar's weakness ahead of the upcoming Fed statement also supported crude oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $2.00 or 2.1 percent at $96.70 a barrel.