Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - Reversing the strong gains in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is notably lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 48,000 mark, with weakness index heavyweights, automakers and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 282.26 points or 0.58 percent to 47,995.48, after hitting a low of 47,729.11 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.5 percent and Honda is losing almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent, Tokyo Electron is down almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is declining almost 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are losing more than 2 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is declining almost 3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony, Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Canon is losing more than 1 percent.

Among other major losers, SHIFT, Resona Holdings, T&D Holdings and J. Front Retailing are losing almost 4 percent each, while Disco, Isetan Mitsukoshi, Mercari, Chiba Bank, Dai-ichi Life, Sumco, Chugai Pharmaceutical, Furukawa Electric and Sompo Holdings are declining more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Aeon is jumping almost 7 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 150 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move to the upside early in the session on Thursday but came under pressure over the course of the trading day. The major averages pulled back well off their highs of the session and into negative territory.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the end of the day but remained in the red. The Dow slid 301.07 points or 0.7 percent to 45952.24, the S&P 500 declined 41.99 points or 0.6 percent to 6,629.07 and the Nasdaq fell 107.54 points or 0.5 percent to 22,562.54.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the French CAC 40 Index surged by 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Thursday after the Energy Information said crude oil inventories in the U.S. increased much more than expected, sparking demand concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude Oil for November delivery was down $0.97 or 1.66 percent at $57.30 per barrel.