Japanese Market Sharply Lower; Down 2%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is tumbling more than 2 percent to well below the 49,200 level, with weakness across all sectors led by exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,152.56 points or 2.29 percent at 49,171.35, after hitting a low of 49,107.39 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling more than 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent and Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 4 percent, Screen Holdings is down more than 2 percent and Advantest is losing almost 3 percent.

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

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic and Sony are losing almost 2 percent each, while Canon is down more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is tumbling more than 3 percent.

Among the other major losers, Fujikura, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Furukawa Electric are jumping more than 6 percent each, while Ibiden and M3 are surging almost 6 percent each. BayCurrent, Resonac Holdings and SHIFT are advancing more than 5 percent each, while Lasertec, Japan Steel Works, IHI, Sumco and Yaskawa Electric are gaining more than 4 percent each. Taiyo Yuden is adding almost 4 percent.

Conversely, JGC Holdings is gaining almost 4 percent and East Japan Railway is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 155-yen range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Monday after showing a lack of direction early in the session. The major averages all showed notable moves to the downside, falling to their lowest closing levels in a month.

The major averages climbed off their lows going into the end of the day but remained firmly negative. The Dow tumbled 557.24 points or 1.2 percent to 46,590.24, the Nasdaq slid 192.51 points or 0.8 percent to 22,708.07 and the S&P 500 slumped 61.70 points or 0.9 percent to 6,672.41.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped 1.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices edged lower on Tuesday as long-term oversupply concerns of a supply-demand mismatch continue to linger. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery dipped $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $60.01 per barrel.