Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 34,400 level, with gains across most sectors led by strong gains in automaker stocks after reports the U.S. is considering pausing the 25 percent tariffs on auto imports.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 423.72 points or 1.25 percent at 34,406.08, after touching a high of 34,459.00 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is surging more than 5 percent and Toyota is also gaining more than 5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is slipping almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is edging down 0.1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is advancing almost 4 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Canon is adding more than 2 percent, Sony is gaining almost 4 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is up more than 1 percent and Panasonic is advancing almost 2 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Denso and Suzuki Motor are surging more than 6 percent each, while Sumitomo Electric Industries is gaining almost 6 percent. Subaru is adding almost 5 percent, while Mazda Motor and Nissan Motor are rising more than 4 percent each. Mitsubishi Motors is up almost 4 percent, while Yokohama Rubber, Ryohin Keikaku, Hoya, Yokogawa Electric and Takeda Pharmaceutical are advancing more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Shiseido is gaining almost 4 percent each, while Toho and Tokyo Gas are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 143 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Monday but managed to end the day mostly higher after moving sharply higher over the course of last Friday's session. The major averages all finished the day firmly positive, climbing further off the one-year lows hit last Tuesday.

The Dow jumped 312.08 points or 0.8 percent to 40,524.79, the Nasdaq rose 107.03 points or 0.6 percent to 16,831.48 and the S&P 500 climbed 42.61 points or 0.8 percent to 5,405.07.

The major European markets also showed significant moves to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index spiked by 2.9 percent, the French CAC 40 Index shot up by 2.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 2.1 percent.

Crude oil prices ticked higher on Monday on concerns that supply may not be able to keep up with demand. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery was up $0.29 or 0.47 percent to $61.82 per barrel.