Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Monday, giving up the gains in the previous session. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is plunging to near the 38,100 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, with losses across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 682.04 or 1.76 percent at 38,132.52, after hitting a low of 37,956.49 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Friday.

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

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing more than 1 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 3 percent and Advantest is slipping almost 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.3 percent, Mizuho Financial is losing almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 2 percent.

The major exporters are lower. Canon is losing almost 2 percent, Sony is declining almost 3 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is slipping 1.5 percent and Panasonic is down more than 3 percent.

Among other major gainers, Trend Micro and Rakuten Group are losing almost 5 percent each, while Dentsu Group and Ricoh are down more than 4 percent each. Olympus, Sumitomo Realty & Development, Konica Minolta, Resonac Holdings, NTN, Oji Holdings, Furukawa Electric, Ebara, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Takashimaya are declining almost are declining almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In economic news, the value of core machinery orders in Japan was down a seasonally adjusted 2.9 percent on month in April, the Cabinet Office said on Monday - coming in at 886.3 billion yen. That follows the 2.9 percent monthly increase in March. On a yearly basis, core machinery orders rose 0.7 percent after gaining 2.7 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 157 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stock saw modest weakness throughout much of the trading session on Friday but recovered to end the day roughly flat. The tech-heavy Nasdaq bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually ending the session at a record closing high.

While the Nasdaq crept up 21.32 points or 0.1 percent to 17,688.88, the S&P 500 edged down 2.14 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,431.60 and the Dow dipped 57.94 points or 0.2 percent to 38,589.16.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index plummeted by 2.7 percent, the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices snapped a four-day winning streak and settled lower on Friday after data showed a jump in U.S. crude inventories, while a stronger greenback weighed as well. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July fell $0.17 or about 0.22 percent at $78.45 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained nearly 4 percent in the week.