Japanese Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly lower on Wednesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is staying well below the 39,300 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, exporters and automaker stocks nearly offset by gains in technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 23.68 or 0.06 percent at 39,246.72, after hitting a low of 39,138.39 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is also down almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent, Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 2 percent and Screen Holdings is surging more than 5 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining 2.5 percent, Mizuho Financial is adding 1.5 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is up almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is declining more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is losing more than 1 percent, while Sony and Canon are flat.

Among other major losers, there are no other major losers.

Conversely, Sapporo Holdings and Sumco are surging more than 5 percent, while Shizuoka Financial is gaining more than 4 percent. Taisei, Yokogawa Electric and Nidec are adding almost 4 percent each, while Oji Holdings is up more than 3 percent. M3, Concordia Financial, Sumitomo Chemical, AGC and Kubota are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 2.758 trillion yen in January, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday. That missed forecasts for a shortfall of 2.104 trillion yen following the 132.5 billion yen surplus in December.

Exports gained 7.2 percent on year to 7.863 trillion yen, shy of expectations for an increase of 7.9 percent following the 2.8 percent gain in the previous month. Imports surged an annual 16.7 percent to 10.622 trillion yen versus forecasts for an increase of 9.7 percent and up from 1.7 percent a month earlier.

Meanwhile, the total value of core machinery orders in Japan was down a seasonally adjusted 1.2 percent on month in December, the Cabinet Office said on Wednesday - coming in at 889.3 billion yen. That missed forecasts for an increase of 0.4 percent following the 3.4 percent gain in November. On a yearly basis, orders rose 4.3 percent - again shy of expectations for an increase of 5.9 percent following the 10.3 percent spike in the previous month.

For the fourth quarter of 2024, core machinery orders improved 2.9 percent on quarter and 6.6 percent on year at 2.658 trillion yen. For the first quarter of 2025, orders are forecast to sink 2.3 percent on quarter and gain 0.4 percent on year at 2.598 trillion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 151 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading session on Tuesday, extending the lackluster performance seen during last Friday's session. The major averages moved to the upside going into end the day, however, with the S&P 500 reaching a new record closing high.

The major averages all posted modest gains on the day. The S&P 500 rose 14.95 points or 0.2 percent to 6,129.58, the Nasdaq inched up 14.49 points or 0.1 percent to 20,041.26 and the Dow crept up 10.26 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 44,556.34.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both rose by 0.2 percent, U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index ended the day nearly unchanged.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Tuesday on supply concerns after Ukraine launched a drone attack on an export pipeline in Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March settled at $71.85 a barrel, gaining $1.11, or 1.57 percent.