Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Friday, snapping a four-session winning streak, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,200 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, dragged by weakness across most sectors, led by technology and financial stocks amid concerns about the outlook for interest rates and looming recession.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 115.80 points or 0.42 percent to 27,195.50, after hitting a low of 26,921.90. Japanese stocks closed significantly higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is slipping almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.3 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.3 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.5 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is slipping almost 2 percent.

Among major exporters, Canon is losing almost 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent and Panasonic is declining almost 2 percent, while Sony is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among the other major losers, IHI is losing almost 4 percent and Seven & I Holdings is down more than 3 percent, while Sumitomo Osaka Cement and Sharp are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Central Japan Railway is gaining more than 2 percent.

In economic news, the average of household spending in Japan was up 5.1 percent on year in August, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday - coming in at 289,974. That missed expectations for an increase of 6.7 percent following the 3.4 percent increase in July. On a monthly basis, household spending sank 1.7 percent - again shy of expectations for an increase of 0.2 percent following the 1.4 percent contraction a month earlier. The average of monthly income per household stood at 563,963 yen, down 1.8 percent on year.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 145 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Thursday but largely maintained a negative bias throughout the day. The major averages added to the modest losses posted on Wednesday but remained well off last Friday's lows.

The major averages all finished the day firmly in the red. The Dow tumbled 346.93 points or 1.2 percent to 29,926.94, the Nasdaq slid 75.33 points or 0.7 percent to 11,073.31 and the S&P 500 slumped 38.76 points or 1.0 percent to 3,744.52.

The major European markets also all showed notable moves back to the downside. While the German DAX Index dipped by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both slid by 0.8 percent.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday, rising for a fourth straight session after OPEC announced on Wednesday that it would cut production by 2 million barrels per day from November, while a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week also contributed to the rise in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November added $0.69 or 0.8 percent at $88.45 a barrel.