Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 37,600 level, with a mixed performance across most sectors.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 180.41 points or 0.48 percent at 37,573.31, after hitting a low of 37,500.11 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is adding almost 1 percent and Toyota is gaining almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.5 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging down 0.4 percent each.

The major exporters are mixed. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are edging up 0.4 percent each, while Sony and Canon are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each.

Among the other major losers, NEXON, Dentsu Group, Idemitsu Kosan and Taiyo Yuden are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Daiichi Sankyo is surging more than 5 percent, Konica Minolta is gaining almost 5 percent and Mitsubishi Estate is adding almost 4 percent, while Sapporo Holdings and Resonac Holdings are advancing more than 3 percent each. Suzuki Motor, Rakuten Group, Kyowa Kirin and Subaru are up almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 144 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session on Friday after initially showing a lack of direction. The major averages all climbed firmly into positive territory after closing mixed for two straight sessions.

The major averages ended the day near their highs of the session. The Dow advanced 331.99 points or 0.8 percent to 42,654.74, the S&P 500 climbed 41.45 points or 0.7 percent to 5,958.38 and the Nasdaq rose 98.78 points or 0.5 percent to 19,211.10.

The major European have all also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices showed a strong move to the upside on Friday amid optimism about U.S. trade policies. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery jumped $0.87 or 1.4 percent to $62.49 a barrel. For the week, the price of crude oil surged 2.4 percent.