Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Extending the gains in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is significantly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 42,100 level to all-time highs, with gains in index heavyweights and exporter stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 333.30 points or 0.80 percent to 42,165.29, after touching a high of 42,426.77 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.1 percent, while Honda is adding almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent and Screen Holdings is declining more than 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.3 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging up 0.1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.4 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent, Sony is adding 3.5 percent and Panasonic is advancing more than 2 percent.

Among other major gainers, NTN is gaining almost 4 percent, while Dowa Holdings, Trend Micro, Mitsubishi Motors, Sumco and Nitto Denko are more than 3 percent each. Alps Alpine, Subaru, Murata Manufacturing, Shionogi & Co. and Sumitomo Chemical are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Mercari is losing almost 6 percent.

In economic news, the value of core machine orders in Japan was down a seasonally adjusted 3.2 percent on month in May, the Cabinet Office said on Thursday - coming in at 857.8 billion yen. That misses forecasts for an increase of 0.9 percent following the 2.9 percent decline in April.

On a yearly basis, orders jumped 10.8 percent - exceeding expectations for 7.2 percent and up sharply from 0.7 percent in the previous month. For the second quarter of 2024, core machine orders are seen lower by 1.6 percent on quarter and 2.8 percent on year at 2,581.0 billion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 161 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Wednesday following the lackluster performance seen in the previous session. With the strong upward move, the S&P 500 closed above 5,600 for the first time ever.

The major averages saw further upside going into the close, ending the day near their highs of the session. The Nasdaq surged 218.16 points or 1.2 percent to 18,647.45, the Dow shot up 429.39 points or 1.1 percent to 39,721.36 and the S&P 500 jumped 56.93 points or 1.0 percent to 5,633.91.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.7 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both jumped by 0.9 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher Wednesday after data showed a bigger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $0.69 at $82.10 a barrel.