Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to remain just above the 33,300 level, with losses in financial stocks. Traders also continue to book profits after the November rally.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 98.66 or 0.30 percent at 33,311.85, after hitting a low of 33,179.07 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent, while Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.3 percent and Screen Holdings is gaining almost 2 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Sony is edging up 0.1 percent, while Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are losing almost 1 percent each. Canon is flat.

Among other major gainers, Nitori Holdings, Lasertec and Rakuten Group are gaining almost 3 each.

Conversely, Mazda Motor, Kobe Steel and Taisei are losing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 146 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday before eventually ending the day modestly higher. With the uptick on the day, the Dow reached its best closing level in well over three months.

The major averages finished the day well off their highs of the session but still in positive territory. The Dow crept up 83.51 points or 0.2 percent to 35,416.98, the Nasdaq rose 40.73 points or 0.3 percent to 14,281.76 and the S&P 500 inched up 4.46 points or 0.1 percent to 4,554.89.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the German DAX Index crept up by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slipped by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Tuesday on hopes that OPEC will extend output cuts at Thursday's ministerial meeting. A weak dollar contributed as well to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended up $1.55 or 2.1 percent at $76.41 a barrel.