Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Monday after opening in the green, extending the losses in the previous four sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 32,200 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with weakness across most sectors, led by losses in technology and heavyweight stocks. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 214.20 or 0.66 percent at 32,174.22, after hitting a low of 32,082.94 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing 2.5 percent and Toyota is declining almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are losing almost 2 percent each, while Advantest is declining more than 1 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.4 percent, while Mizuho Financial is edging up 0.2 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Sony is losing more than 1 percent and Panasonic is declining more than 2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are flat.

Among other major losers, Yaskawa Electric isand Subaru are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

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

On Wall Street, stocks saw substantial volatility over the course of the trading session on Friday, with the major averages showing wild swings back and forth across the unchanged line following the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report.

The major averages moved to the downside going into the close and ended the day in negative territory. The Dow slid 187.38 points or 0.6 percent to 33,734.88, the Nasdaq edged down 18.37 points or 0.1 percent to 13,660.72 and the S&P 500 dipped 12.64 points or 0.3 percent to 4,398.95.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Friday, continuing to find support from the recent data showing a big drop in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $2.06 or about 2.9 percent at $73.86 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained about 4.6 percent in the week.