Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 falling well above the 39,700 level, with weakness across all sectors led by automakers, exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 327.69 points or 0.80 percent at 40,670.58, after hitting a low of 40,636.24 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharpy lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is declining almost 2 percent and Toyota is also losing almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is adding more than 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is losing almost 1 percent and Advantest is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 1 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are losing more than 1 percent each, while Panasonic is declining almost 1 percent and Canon is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the other major losers, Lasertec is tumbling almost 7 percent and Nitto Denko is declining more than 5 percent, while Shionogi & Co and Tokuyama are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Nomura Research Institute is surging more than 8 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 148 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance over the course of the trading day on Monday after moving modestly higher early in the session. Despite the choppy trading, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.

The Nasdaq rose 70.27 points or 0.3 percent to 21,178.58 and the S&P 500 inched up 1.13 points or less than a tenth of percent to 6,389.77, while the narrower Dow edged down 64.36 points or 0.1 percent to 44,837.56.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved mostly lower over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index slid by 1.0 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index the French CAC 40 Index both fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Monday after the US announced a tariff framework agreement with the EU, cooling fears of a big tariff war. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery jumped $1.72 or 2.64 percent to $66.88 per barrel.