Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly lower on Wednesday after opening in the green, reversing the slight gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to near the 35,500 level, with weakness in exporters, automakers and financial stocks partially offset by gains in technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 100.36 or 0.28 percent at 35,524.12, after touching a high of 35,751.02 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is also down more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is adding almost 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are gaining more than 2 percent each.

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

Among the major exporters, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Sony is losing more than 2 percent and Panasonic is down almost 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Isetan Mitsukoshi is losing 4.5 percent, while Sumitomo Pharma and Tokyo Electric Power are slipping almost 4 percent each. Eisai is down more than 3 percent, while J. Front Retailing, Nissan Motor, Idemitsu Kosan, Dai-ichi Life, Astellas Pharma, Rakuten Group, Tokyo Gas, Kansai Electric Power, Concordia Financial and Otsuka Holdings are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 149 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the remainder of the session after recovering from an early move to the downside and moving mostly higher in morning trading on Tuesday. The major averages spent the day swinging back and forth across the unchanged line.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq eventually ended the day firmly positive, jumping 150.60 points or 0.9 percent to 17,449.89. The S&P 500 also climbed 21.22 points or 0.4 percent to 5,633.07, but the narrower Dow edged down 11.80 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 41,989.96.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index surged by 1.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices moved to the downside during trading on Tuesday, giving back ground after surging to its highest closing level over a month on Monday. After spiking $2.12 or 3.1 percent to $71.48 a barrel in the previous session, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May delivery fell $0.38 or 0.5 percent to $71.10 a barrel.