Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Wednesday, giving up the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,400 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in exporters and technology stocks as the yen tumbled.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 293.37 points or 1.06 percent at 27,333.14, after hitting a low of 27,268.70 earlier. Japanese stocks closed slightly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is flat. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent, while Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are flat.

Among the major exporters, Sony is slipping more than 3 percent and Canon is losing almost 1 percent, while Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are declining more than 1 percent each.

Among the other major losers, Nippon Yusen K.K. is plunging almost 7 percent, while Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines are losing more than 5 percent each. Sharp is down almost 5 percent, while Hitachi Zosen, Toho Zinc and Nikon are slipping more than 4 percent each. JGC Holdings and Inpex are declining almost 4 percent, while Taiyo Yuden, Idemitsu Kosan and Yamaha are sliding more than 3 percent each. Nippon Light Metal Holdings and M3 are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Subaru is gaining almost 3 percent.

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

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Tuesday after an initial move to the upside. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before ending the day firmly negative.

The major averages finished the session at their worst closing levels in well over a month. The Dow fell 173.14 points or 0.6 percent to 31,145.30, the Nasdaq slid 85.96 points or 0.7 percent to 1,544.91 and the S&P 500 dipped 16.07 points or 0.4 percent to 3,908.19.

Meanwhile, European stocks finished a choppy session mostly higher. While the German DAX Index advanced by 0.9 percent. the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both edged up by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil futures settled barely higher on Tuesday after the decision by OPEC+ to cut output by 100,000 barrels per day in October, although the dollar's uptick limited oil's upside. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by a penny or $0.09% at $86.88 a barrel.