Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 falling well below the 63,400 level, with weakness in automakers and financial stocks partially offset by gains in index heavyweights.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 226.14 points or 0.20 percent at 63,366.85, after hitting a low of 65,067.18 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is jumping almost 7 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.3 percent and Tokyo Electron is declining almost 1 percent, while Screen Holdings is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are declining almost 2 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are losing more than 1 percent each, while Canon is edging down 0.5 percent. Panasonic is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nitori Holdings, Marubeni and Japan Steel Works are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Trend Micro is surging almost 5 percent, Taiyo Yuden is advancing more than 4 percent and Lasertec is gaining almost 4 percent, while Kioxia Holdings and Resonac Holdings are gaining more than 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 154 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a significant recovery attempt over the course of the trading day after moving sharply lower early in the session on Monday. The major averages climbed well off their worst levels of the day but still closed in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down 146.62 points or 0.6 percent at 26,186.41 after tumbling by as much as 1.3 percent early in the day. The S&P 500 also fell 37.00 points or 0.5 percent to 7,619.98, while the Dow dipped 152.09 points or 0.3 percent at 52,421.20.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index declined by 0.8 percent and the German DAX Index fell by 0.5 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the downtrend and rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices jumped on Monday after Saudi Arabia confirmed closing its East-West pipeline following attacks by Houthi militants. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $1.52 or 1.52 percent at $101.57 per barrel.