Japanese Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Wednesday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving up to near the 57,900 level, with gains in index heavyweights, automakers and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 575.07 or 1.00 percent at 57,896.16, after touching a high of 58,047.89 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining 1.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is adding more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 2 percent, Screen Holdings is jumping almost 6 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is declining almost 4 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are losing almost 2 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 3 percent and Sony is edging down 0.1 percent, while Canon is edging up 0.2 percent and Panasonic is gaining more than 2 percent.

Among other major gainers, BayCurrent is soaring more than 7 percent, Nomura Research Institute is jumping more than 6 percent and Japan Exchange Group is surging almost 6 percent, while Keyence and Sumitomo Metal Mining are gaining more than 5 percent each. Konami Group, Taiyo Yuden, NEC, Disco, Socionext and Yaskawa Electric are advancing almost 4 percent each, while Fuji Electric, Lasertec and M3 are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nippon Steel is tumbling more than 5 percent and Takashimaya is slipping almost 5 percent, while Sumitomo Chemical, IHI, Tokyo Electric Power and Resona Holdings are declining more than 4 percent each. Shizuoka Financial, Chiba Bank and JFE Holdings are sliding almost 4 percent each, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan Post, Nitori Holdings and ENEOS Holdings are down more than 3 percent each.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were up 2.6 percent on year in January, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday. That was in line with expectations and unchanged from the December reading. On a monthly basis, producer prices slipped 0.5 percent following the flat reading in the previous month. Excluding international transportation, producer prices also were down 0.5 percent on month and up 2.6 percent on year.

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

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Tuesday following the sell-off seen in the previous session. The major averages all moved notably higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way.

The major averages ended the day not far off their highs of the session. The Nasdaq jumped 236.41 points or 1.0 percent to 22,863.68, the Dow advanced 370.44 points or 0.8 percent to 49,174.50 and the S&P 500 climbed 52.32 points or 0.8 percent to 6,890.07.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both closed marginally lower.

Crude oil prices fell slumped Tuesday as traders continue to evaluate the potential turbulence in the trade tariff environment following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on reciprocal tariffs. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery sank $0.71 or 1.1 percent to $66.31 a barrel.