Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - Snapping the three-session winning streak, the Japanese stock market is notably lower on Thursday after opening in the green, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 32,800 level, with losses across most sectors led by exporters, financial and technology stocks amid the strengthening of the yen against the US dollar.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 142.85 points or 0.43 percent to 32,783.50, after hitting a low of 32,708.77 and a high of 33,120.55 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is declining almost 4 percent and Honda is slipping more than 4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 3 percent, Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.3 percent and Screen Holdings is down almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing more than 4 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are declining almost 4 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Canon is losing almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is down almost 1 percent, Panasonic is declining more than 4 percent and Sony is slipping more than 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Mitsubishi Motors is plunging more than 7 percent and Mazda Motor is losing almost 6 percent, while Toho, T&D Holdings and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are declining almost 5 percent each. Resona Holdings, Chiba Bank, Fukuoka Financial, Nissan Motor, JTEKT, Tokyo Electric Power and Dai-ichi Life are down more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, Recruit Holdings is surging more than 8 percent, Sumco is gaining almost 4 percent and Shin-Etsu Chemical is adding almost 3 percent.

In economic news, the value of core machine orders in Japan was up a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent on month in October, the Cabinet Office said on Thursday, coming in at 858.7billion yen. That beat expectations for a decline of 0.5 percent following the 1.4 percent increase in September.

On a yearly basis, core machine orders fell 2.2 percent - but that also topped forecasts for a drop of 5.1 percent following the 2.2 percent drop in the previous month. For the fourth quarter of 2023, core machine orders are forecast to add 0.5 percent on quarter but fall 1.6 percent on year at 2,550.6 billion yen. The total value of machinery orders received by 280 manufacturers operating in Japan decreased 7.6 percent on month in October.

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

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a lackluster performance throughout much of the trading session on Wednesday before skyrocketing in reaction to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. With the late-day rally, the Dow soared to a record closing high, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached their best closing levels in almost two years.

The Dow saw further upside going into the close, spiking 512.30 points or 1.4 percent on the day to 37,090.24. The Nasdaq shot up 200.57 points or 1.4 percent to 14,733.96 and the S&P 500 jumped 63.39 points or 1.4 percent to 4,707.09.

Meanwhile, the major European markets finished the day narrowly mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday after data showed a bigger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $0.86 or 1.3 percent at $69.47 a barrel.