Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly lower on Wednesday after opening in the green, snapping a five-session winning streak, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 37,500 level, with weakness in index heavyweights and exporters partially offset by gains in automakers and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 67.33 or 0.18 percent at 37,462.16, after hitting a low of 37,415.75 and a high of 37,659.94 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also down almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 2 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are edging up 0.1 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is advancing more than 4 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon, Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Sony is declining more than 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Sompo Holdings is tumbling more than 6 percent and Tokio Marine Holdings is declining more than 3 percent, while Disco, DeNA and Renesas Electronics are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Socionext and T&D Holdings are surging almost 5 percent each, while IHI and Tokuyama are gaining almost 4 percent each. Marui Group and Shizuoka Financial are advancing more than 3 percent each, while Yokogawa Electric, Oji Holdings, Yamaha and Dai-ichi Life are up almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 144 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved back to the downside during trading on Tuesday after recovering from an early slump to end the previous session slightly higher. The major averages all moved to the downside, although selling pressure remained somewhat subdued.

The major averages climbed well off their worst levels going into the end of the day remained in negative territory. The Dow fell 114.83 points or 0.3 percent to 42,677.24, the Nasdaq slid 72.75 points or 0.4 percent to 19,142.71 and the S&P 500 declined 23.14 points or 0.4 percent to 5,940.46.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.9 percent, the French CAC 40 Index increased by 0.8 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.4 percent.