Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading modestly lower on Thursday, reversing some of the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 37,650 level, with weakness in automakers, exporters and financial stocks partially offset by gains in technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 100.80 points or 0.27 percent to 37,646.65, after touching a high of 37,717.06 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 2 percent and Honda is also declining almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is surging more than 5 percent, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 3 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are declining 1.5 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Sony is losing almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is declining 1.5 percent, Panasonic is slipping more than 2 percent and Canon is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among other major losers, Sumitomo Pharma is declining more than 6 percent, while Subaru, BayCurrent and Mazda Motor are losing almost 4 percent each. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, ZOZO and Daiichi Sankyo are down more than 3 percent each, while TDK, Shimizu, IHI, Recruit Holdings, ENEOS Holdings and Tokuyama are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Lasertec is gaining more than 4 percent, while Renesas Electronics and Kyowa Kirin are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 142 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after moving mostly higher over the two previous sessions. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing narrowly mixed.

Despite the choppy trading, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 once again reached their best closing levels in well over three months. While the Dow dipped 91.90 points or 0.2 percent to 42,427.74, the S&P 500 inched up 0.44 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,970.81 and the Nasdaq rose 61.53 points or 0.3 percent to 19,460.49.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index increased by 0.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices moved to the downside during trading on Wednesday, reflecting easing supply concerns as rains slowed the growth of blazes that had disrupted Canadian crude production. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery fell $0.56 or 0 .9 percent to $62.85 a barrel.