Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to near the 38,500 level, with losses across most sectors led by auto makers, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 323.34 or 0.83 percent at 38,514.12, after hitting a low of 38,343.98 earlier. Japanese stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 3 percent and Toyota is down more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 3 percent and Screen Holdings is slipping 3.5 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Canon is losing almost 3 percent, Panasonic is declining more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is sliding more than 4 percent, while Sony is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among other major losers, Lasertec plunging more than 7 percent and Recruit Holdings is declining almost 6 percent, while Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Isetan Mitsukoshi are losing more than 5 percent each. Credit Saison and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are slipping almost 5 percent each, while Dai-ichi Life, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Hitachi, Amada, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, MS&AD Insurance, Fukuoka Financial and Sojitz are losing more than 4 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In economic news, the services sector in Japan continued to expand in May, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Wednesday with a services PMI score of 53.8. That's down from 54.3 in April, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

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

On the Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday before eventually ending the day modestly higher. The major averages all finished the day in positive territory following the mixed performance seen on Monday.

The Dow climbed 140.26 points or 0.4 percent to 38,711.29, the Nasdaq rose 28.38 points or 0.2 percent to 16,857.05 and the S&P 500 edged up 7.94 points or 0.2 percent to 5,291.34.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session amid concerns about possible oversupply in the market after OPEC decided to phase out voluntary production cuts from October. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July fell $0.97 or 1.3 percent at $73.25 a barrel.