Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading significantly lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 69,400 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, exporters, financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in automaker stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 665.11 points or 0.95 percent to 69,370.60, after hitting a low of 69,195.47 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging up 0.4 percent and Honda is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 1 percent each, while Screen Holdings is edging up 0.4 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 4 percent, Sony is losing almost 1 percent, Canon is edging down 0.2 percent and Panasonic is slipping more than 4 percent.

Among other major losers, Komatsu is tumbling almost 7 percent and Kubota is slipping more than 6 percent, while Furukawa Electric and Mitsui & Co. are declining almost 5 percent each. Idemitsu Kosan, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Chubu Electric Power, Hitachi Construction Machinery and JGC Holdings are losing more than 4 percent each, while Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Japan Steel Works, Tokyo Gas, Mitsubishi Materials and Sumitomo Electric Industries are down almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, Trend Micro is advancing more than 4 percent and Kioxia Holdings is gaining almost 3 percent.

In economic news, Japan's current account surplus rose to JPY 4,062.0 billion in August 2026 from JPY 3,628.1 billion in the same month a year earlier, surpassing market expectations for a JPY 3,194 billion surplus. In the first half of 2026, Japan's trade surplus widened to JPY 17.43 trillion from JPY 14.23 trillion in the same period a year earlier.

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

On Wall Street, stocks saw an initial pullback on Wednesday but regained ground over the course of the trading day, after trending higher over the past several sessions. The major averages climbed well off their lows of the session, although they still closed in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day down 61.20 points or 0.2 percent to 27,538.69 after slumping by as much as 0.9 percent in early trading. The S&P 500 also dipped 17.16 points or 0.2 percent to 7,801.77, while the narrower Dow slid 341.41 points or 0.7 percent to 51,179.87.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day, While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index declined by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.2 percent and the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.4 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped again on Wednesday, unable to hold early gains after the International Energy Agency announced member states have expressed support for accelerating the oil stock releases. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $1.15 or 1.3 percent at $88.29 a barrel.