Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading modestly lower on Thursday after opening in the green, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 66,050 level, with weakness in index heavyweights and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 227.81 points or 0.34 percent to 66,034.35, after touching a high of 66,954.69 earlier. Japanese stocks ended notably higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent, while Honda is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is declining almost 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is down almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is advancing more than1 percent.

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

Among other major losers, Sumitomo Metal Mining is tumbling almost 6 percent, while Yamaha Motor and Taiyo Yuden are declining more than 3 percent each. Ebara is losing almost 3 percent.

Conversely, SHIFT is surging more than 4 percent and Kioxia Holdings is advancing almost 4 percent, while Mitsubishi Chemical, BayCurrent and Socionext are gaining more than 3 percent each. M3 and IHI are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 159 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after ending the previous session mostly higher. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing modestly lower.

The Dow dipped 113.52 points or 0.2 percent to 53,463.88, the Nasdaq slipped 21.10 points or 0.1 percent to 26,130.20 and the S&P 500 edged down 1.58 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 7,675.70.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices inched lower on Wednesday on reports of Iran and Oman nearing an agreement to establish a temporary transit corridor through the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $0.22 or 0.27 percent at $82.14 per barrel.