Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous four sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 59,850 level, with a mixed performance across most sectors as global bond yields climbed sharply amid mounting inflation concerns related to the Middle East war.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 705.80 or 1.17 percent at 59,844.79, after hitting a low of 59,292.25 earlier. Japanese stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling more than 5 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.3 percent and Toyota is adding almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is edging up 0.2 percent, while Tokyo Electron is losing almost 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 1 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is tumbling more than 5 percent, Sony is losing almost 3 percent and Panasonic is declining almost 4 percent, while Canon is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among other major losers, OKUMA is tumbling almost 9 percent, Fujikura is sliding almost 6 percent and Sharp is slipping more than 5 percent, while SMC, Taisei and Toto are declining almost 5 percent each. Mitsubishi Materials and Sumitomo Realty & Development are losing more than 4 percent each, while Tokyo Electric Power, Kajima, Shimizu and Sumitomo Chemical are declining almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, UBE is skyrocketing almost 19 percent and Ryohin Keikaku is advancing more than 3 percent, while Nitori Holdings and NTN are gaining almost 3 percent each.

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

On the Wall Street, the major U.S. stock indexes all moved to lower during trading on Tuesday following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. Stocks staged a recovery attempt in early afternoon trading but moved back to the downside going into the end of the day.

The major averages all finished the day firmly in negative territory. The Nasdaq slid 220.02 points or 0.8 percent to 25,870.71, the S&P 500 fell 49.44 points or 0.7 percent to 7,353.61 and the Dow declined 322.24 points or 0.7 percent to 49,363.88. Meanwhile, the major European markets turned mixed on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices took a breather on Tuesday following news the U.S. is halting its planned attacks on Iran, although the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. West Texas Intermediate crude for June was down $0.07 or 0.1 percent at $108.59 per barrel.