Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 2%

(RTTNews) - Extending the losses in the previous session, the Japanese market is sharply lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling more than 2 percent to near the 37,000 mark, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, automakers and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 768.62 points or 2.03 percent to 37,031.35, after hitting a low of 37,021.05 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 3 percent and Honda is down more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 2 percent each, while Screen Holdings is declining more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing more than 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is declining more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony and Canon are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 2 percent. Panasonic is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among other major losers, CyberAgent is losing more than 4 percent, Resonac Holdings is down more than 3 percent and Keyence is declining almost 3 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

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

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Thursday after recovering from an initial move to the downside. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing lower.

With the lower close on the day, the major averages extended the sharp pullback seen on Wednesday. The Nasdaq slid 94.98 points or 0.5 percent to 17,804.03, the Dow fell 155.09 points or 0.4 percent to 42,299.70 and the S&P 500 dipped 18.89 points or 0.3 percent to 5,693.31.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slid by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index decreased by 0.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices moved higher Thursday on supply concerns after data showed a sharp drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May closed up $0.19 or about 0.27 percent at $69.84 a barrel.