Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading significantly lower on Friday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 65,050 level, with weakness in technology stocks partially offset by gains in automakers and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 644.07 points or 0.98 percent to 65,039.19, after hitting a low of 65,037.19 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is declining more than 5 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is up almost 1 percent and Honda is advancing more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are declining almost 5 percent, while Tokyo Electron is losing almost 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is losing more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent, while Canon is gaining almost 2 percent and Sony is advancing more than 3 percent.

Among other major losers, M3 is plummeting almost 20 percent, FUJIFILM is plunging almost 18 percent, Lasertec is tumbling more than 12 percent and Amada is sliding almost 7 percent, while Furukawa Electric, Kioxia Holdings and Disco are slipping almost 6 percent each. Murata Manufacturing, Omron and Taiyo Yuden are declining almost 4 percent each, while Sumco and Ebara are losing more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, BANDAI NAMCO is soaring more than 8 percent and SHIFT is jumping more than 7 percent, while Shiseido and Konica Minolta are spiking almost 6 percent each. Idemitsu Kosan and Resonac Holdings are advancing almost 5 percent each, while Nintendo, Konami Group, Mitsui & Co. and Shizuoka Financial are gaining more than 4 percent each. Tokyo Tatemono, ENEOS Holdings and Dowa Holdings are adding almost 4 percent each, while Kirin Holdings and Yokohama Rubber are up more than 3 percent each.

In economic news, the average of household spending in Japan was down 3.3 percent on year in June, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday - coming in at 290,886 yen. That missed expectations for an increase of 0.8 percent following the 0.4 percent drop in May.

On a monthly basis, household spending sank 6.4 percent - again shy of forecasts for a fall of 3.1 percent following the 3.7 percent gain in the previous month. The average of monthly income per household stood at 1,013,986 yen, up 2.0 percent on year.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 158 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks continued to experience choppy trading on Thursday following the lackluster performance seen for much of Wednesday's session. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 spent most of the day lingering near the unchanged line, although the narrower Dow showed a more notable move to the downside.

The major averages all finished the day in negative territory. While the Dow slumped 464.02 points or 0.9 percent to 53,885.10, the S&P 500 dipped 13.59 points or 0.2 percent to 7,709.96 and the Nasdaq edged down 15.09 points or 0.1 percent to 26,348.35.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Thursday following attacks on Saudi Arabian tankers in the Red Sea. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was up $2.11 or 2.81 percent at $77.33 per barrel.