Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading significantly lower on Friday, snapping a three-session winning streak, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 59,050 level, with weakness in financial stocks and a mixed performance in most other sectors.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 491.42 points or 0.83 percent to 59,026.92, after hitting a low of 59,381.25 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 1 percent, while Honda is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging up 0.5 percent, while Screen Holdings is sliding more than 5 percent and Tokyo Electron is declining more than 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 2 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony and Canon are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 2 percent and Panasonic is down more than 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, SHIFT is soaring more than 8 percent and BayCurrent is surging more than 5 percent, while Nintendo, Fujitsu and Yokohama Rubber gaining more than 3 percent each. Recruit Holdings and Renesas Electronics are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Sumco is tumbling almost 7 percent, Sumitomo Metal Mining is declining more than 5 percent and Resonac Holdings is losing more than 4 percent, while Lasertec, Kioxia Holdings and Marubeni are sliding more than 3 percent each. Ebara, Nomura Holdings, Konica Minolta, Shimizu, Mitsubishi Materials, Dai-ichi Life Group and Mitsubishi are down almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 159 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Thursday but largely maintained a positive bias before ending the day moderately higher. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 added to the strong gains posted over the few days, reaching new record closing highs.

The major averages all finished the day in positive territory. The Nasdaq climbed 86.69 points or 0.4 percent to 24,102.70, the S&P 500 rose 18.33 points or 0.3 percent to 7,041.28 and the Dow increased 115.00 points or 0.2 percent to 48,578.72.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index edged down 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index climbed 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Thursday as concerns of supply disruptions continue despite upcoming peace talks between the U.S. and Iran to end the month-long gulf war. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up $3.45 or 3.78 percent at $94.74 per barrel.