Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading significantly lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 falling well below the 65,250 level, with weakness in index heavyweights and financial stocks partially offset by some gains in technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 640.46 points or 0.97 percent at 65,237.16, after hitting a low of 65,058.86 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Honda is flat and Toyota is down more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are advancing more than 2 percent each.

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

The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent and Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent, while Sony is gaining almost 2 percent and Canon is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Resonac Holdings is declining almost 5 percent and Idemitsu Kosan is slipping almost 4 percent, while Toppan Holdings, Inpex, SHIFT and Tokyo Electric Power are losing more than 3 percent each. Kioxia Holdings, Chubu Electric Power, Ibiden, Dentsu Group, Shiseido, Kubota and Furukawa Electric are all down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Tokai Carbon is gaining more than 3 percent, while Lasertec and Disco are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 157 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated but remained mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Monday after coming under pressure early in the session. The major averages all moved to the downside on the day following the strength seen during last Friday's session.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 248.34 points or 0.9 percent to 26,820.38, the S&P 500 slid 59.72 points or 0.8 percent to 7,683.69 and the Dow fell 347.11 points or 0.7 percent to 51,481.51.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day little changed. While the French CAC 40 Index closed just above the unchanged line, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices were up on Monday, although well off early highs after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected Iran's conditional proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.41 or 0.42 percent to $92.80 per barrel.