Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 44,950 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, automakers, exporters and financial stocks partially offset by gains in technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 436.39 points or 0.96 percent at 44,918.60, after hitting a low of 44,901.68 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Friday.

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

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 3 percent, Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.5 percent and Screen Holdings is adding more than 1 percent.

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

The major exporters are mostly lower. Panasonic is declining 1.5 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are losing more than 1 percent each. Sony is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among the other major losers, J. Front Retailing and Aeon are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sumco is soaring almost 8 percent, M3 is surging more than 6 percent, Sumitomo Pharma is gaining almost 4 percent, Fujikura is gaining more than 3 percent and Sumitomo Heavy Industries is adding almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 149 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Friday after turning in a lackluster performance early in the session. The major averages all moved to the upside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq rejoining the Dow and the S&P 500 in positive territory after spending some time below the unchanged line.

The major averages all finished the day firmly in positive territory. The Dow advanced 299.97 points or 0.7 percent to 46,247.29, the S&P 500 climbed 38.98 points or 0.6 percent to 6,643.70 and the Nasdaq rose 99.37 points or 0.4 percent to 22,484.07.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices advanced on Friday as Russia restricted fuel exports by introducing a partial ban on diesel exports until the end of 2025. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.59 or 0.91 percent at $65.57 per barrel.