Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly lower on Tuesday, reversing the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 42,400 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 423.44 points or 0.99 percent at 42,384.38, after hitting a low of 42,1376.62 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Monday.

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

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining almost 1 percent, while Advantest is losing more than 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.2 percent.

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

The major exporters are mostly loser. Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are losing almost 1 percent each, while Sony and Canon are declining more than 1 percent each.

Among the other major losers, Nissan Motor is plunging more than 6 percent and Tokyo Electric Power is losing more than 5 percent, while Recruit Holdings and Hino Motors are declining more than 3 percent each. Yokohama Rubber and Daiichi Sankyo are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Rakuten is gaining almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 147 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Monday after ending last Friday's trading sharply higher. The major averages turned in a lackluster performance for much of the session before coming under pressure going into the close.

The major averages all finished the day in negative territory. The Dow slid 349.27 points or 0.8 percent to 45,282.47, the S&P 500 fell 27.59 points or 0.4 percent to 6,439.32 and the Nasdaq slipped 47.24 points or 0.2 percent to 21,449.29.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. The U.K. markets closed for a public holiday, while the French CAC 40 Index tumbled by 1.5 percent, the German DAX Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices jumped on Monday, on concerns that Western sanctions on Russian oil exports may continue longer than anticipated. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $1.20 or 1.89 percent at $64.86 per barrel.