Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 26,800 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, following the ruling coalition expanding its majority in an upper house election, which is expected to provide administrative stability.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 337.71 or 1.27 percent at 26,854.90, after touching a high of 27,062.17 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are gaining almost 2 percent each.

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

The major exporters are mostly higher, with Sony is gaining 2.5 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 1 percent, Panasonic is up 1.5 percent and Canon is advancing more than 2 percent. Among the other major gainers, Isetan Mitsukoshi is surging more than 5 percent, while Daiichi Sankyo, JGC Holdings and Olympus are gaining more than 4 percent each. Citizen Watch and Sumitomo Realty & Development are adding almost 4 percent each, while Recruit Holdings, Denso, J. Front Retailing, Seiko Epson, Mazda Motor, Terumo, Takashimaya and Marui Group are all up more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Toray Industries is plunging almost 7 percent and Yaskawa Electric is losing almost 4 percent.

In economic news, the value of core machine orders in Japan was down a seasonally adjusted 5.6 percent on month in May, the Cabinet Office said on Monday - coming in at 908.8 billion yen. That just missed expectations for a decline of 5.5 percent following the 10.8 percent spike in April. On a yearly basis, core machine orders climbed 7.4 percent - beating forecasts for 5.8 percent and down from 19.0 percent in the previous month. For the second quarter of 2022, core machine orders are seen lower by 8.1 percent on quarter and 5.6 percent on year at 2,370.6 billion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 137 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Friday after trending higher over the past few sessions. The major averages recovered from an early move to the downside but spent the rest of the session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually finished the session narrowly mixed. While the Nasdaq inched up 13.96 points or 0.1 percent to 11,635.08, the Dow dipped 46.40 points or 0.2 percent to 31,338.15 and the S&P 500 edged down 3.24 points or 0.1 percent to 3,899.38.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, gaining for a second straight day after the stronger than expected jobs report. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August jumped $2.06 or 2 percent at $104.79 a barrel, but WTI crude futures shed more than 3 percent in the week.