Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading significantly lower on Thursday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well above the 37,700 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, automakers, exporters and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 375.95 points or 0.99 percent to 37,651.34, after hitting a low of 37,556.75 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 3 percent and Honda is down more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 6 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are down almost 1 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is losing more than 2 percent and Sony is slipping more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are down almost 1 percent each.

Among other major losers, Fujikura and Subaru are sliding more than 6 percent each, while Mazda Motor is declining almost 6 percent and Furukawa Electric is losing more than 5 percent. Disco and Mitsubishi Motors are slipping almost 5 percent each, while Renesas Electronics, Konica Minolta and Mercari are down more than 4 percent. Denso, Idemitsu Kosan and Nintendo are tumbling almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 150 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, giving back ground after trending higher over the past few sessions. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the pullback amid significant weakness in the technology sector.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained negative. The Nasdaq plunged 372.84 points or 2.0 percent to 17,889.01, the S&P 500 slumped 64.45 points or 1.1 percent to 5,712.20 and the Dow fell 132.71 points or 0.3 percent to 42,454.79.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.0 percent and the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.2 percent.

Crude oil prices moved higher Wednesday on supply concerns after data showed a sharp drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week, while renewed efforts from the U.S. to limit Venezuelan and Iranian oil exports also boosted prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May closed up $0.65 or about 0.94 percent at $69.65 a barrel.