Japanese Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading slightly lower on Wednesday after opening in the green, snapping a seven-session winning streak, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 36,800 level, with weakness in exporters and automaker stocks partially offset by gains in technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 16.44 or 0.04 percent at 36,814.25, after hitting a low of 36,746.99 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly higher on Friday ahead of the holidays on Monday and Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is declining 2.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are gaining almost 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging down 0.4 percent and Sony is declining almost 4 percent, while Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric are losing more than 1 percent each.

Among other major losers, Otsuka is tumbling almost 6 percent, while Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo and Shionogi & Co. are losing more than 4 percent each. Renesas Electronics and Sumitomo Pharma are declining almost 4 percent each, while Kyowa Kirin, Mitsubishi Motors, Alps Alpine and Nissan Motor are slipping more than 3 percent each. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Hino Motors, Astellas Pharma and Toho are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Ryohin Keikaku and West Japan Railway are soaring more than 7 percent each, while Marubeni and Japan Airlines are surging almost 6 percent each. Sompo Holdings is gaining more than 4 percent and Nitori Holdings is adding almostb 4 percent, while Aeon and T&D Holdings are up more than 3 percent each. Itochu, M3, Mitsubishi Corp., Rakuten Group, Sumitomo, Hitachi and KDDI are advancing almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 143 yen-range on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks saw continued weakness during trading on Tuesday after ending Monday's volatile session mostly lower. The major averages all moved to the downside on the day, pulling back further off last Friday's one-month closing highs.

The major averages finished the day firmly in negative territory. The Dow slumped 389.83 points or 1.0 percent to 40,829.00, the Nasdaq slid 154.58 points or 0.9 percent to 17,689.66 and the S&P 500 fell 43.37 points or 0.8 percent to 5,606.91.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index ended the day nearly unchanged, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices showed a substantial move back to the upside during trading on Tuesday. Crude for June delivery surged $1.92 or 3.2 percent to $62.15 a barrel after tumbling to its lowest closing levels in over four years during Monday's session.