Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Thursday, giving up the gains in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling a tad below the 32,600 level, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with losses across most sectors, led by technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 296.90 points or 0.90 percent to 32,599.13, after hitting a low of 32,592.75 earlier. Japanese stocks closed significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota and Honda are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is down more than 1 percent and Advantest is declining more than 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.1 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 1 percent. Mizuho Financial is flat.

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.2 percent, while Sony is losing almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.2 percent. Panasonic is flat.

Among other major losers, M3 is losing almost 3 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In economic news, Japan posted a merchandise trade surplus of 43.048 billion yen in June, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday. That beat forecasts for a deficit of 46.7 billion following the downwardly revised 1,381.9 billion yen shortfall in May (originally -1,372.5 billion yen).

Exports rose 1.5 percent on year to 8.744 trillion yen, missed expectations for an increase of 2.2 percent following the 0.6 percent gain in the previous month.

Imports slumped an annual 12.9 percent to 8.701 trillion yen versus expectations for a decline of 11.3 percent following the upwardly revised 9.8 percent gain a month earlier (originally -9.9 percent).

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 139 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated after an early move to the upside but largely managed to maintain a positive bias throughout the trading day on Wednesday. The major averages once again climbed to their highest closing levels in over a year.

The major averages all closed in positive territory, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up just 4.38 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 14,358.02. The Dow climbed 109.28 points or 0.3 percent to 35,061.21 and the S&P 500 rose 10.74 points or 0.2 percent to 4,565.72.

The major European markets also mostly moved to the upside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index surged by 1.8 percent and the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, although the German DAX Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Wednesday after data showed a smaller-than-expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week, while a stronger dollar weighed as well. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August fell $0.40 or 0.5 percent at $75.35 a barrel.