Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Wednesday, extending the sharp losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 39,650 level, with weakness in technology and financial stocks as well as mixed performance in most other sectors.

The market is weak after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 35 percent tariff on Japanese imports, aiming to pressure Tokyo into making trade concessions.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 375.60 or 0.94 percent at 39,610.73, after hitting a low of 39,444.70 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is declining almost 4 percent, Tokyo Electron is losing almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is slipping more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are declining almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Sony are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Panasonic is losing almost 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining more than 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Konami Group and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are tumbling more than 5 percent each, while IHI, BANDAI NAMCO and Socionext are losing more than 4 percent each. Fujikura and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are declining almost 4 percent each, while Disco, Tokyo Electric Power, Sompo Holdings and CyberAgent are down more than 3 percent each. TDK, LY and Sumitomo Pharma are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Renesas Electronics is gaining more than 4 percent, while East Japan Railway and Teijin are advancing almost 3 percent each.

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

On the Wall Street, stocks turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday after trending higher over the past several sessions. While the Dow showed a notable advance to reach its best closing level in over four months, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 gave back ground.

The Dow jumped 400.17 points or 0.9 percent to 44,494.94, but the S&P 500 edged down 6.94 points or 0.1 percent to 6,198.01 and the Nasdaq slid 166.84 points or 0.8 percent to 20,202.89.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index closed just below the unchanged line and the German DAX Index slumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices rose modestly on Tuesday as attention shifts to the OPEC cartel's supposed plans to increase output even as the Middle East remains uneventful. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery traded at $65.40 per barrel, up $0.29 or 0.45 percent.