Japanese Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading slightly lower on Thursday, reversing the slight gains in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 64,950 level, with weakness in financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in automaker stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 83.05 points or 0.13 percent to 64,916.36, after hitting a low of 64,468.56 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is declining almost 4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining more than 1 percent and Honda is advancing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Screen Holdings are losing almost 1 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.5 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is edging up 0.3 percent and Canon is gaining almost 1 percent, while Panasonic is losing more than 1 percent and Sony is declining almost 3 percent.

Among other major lower, Fuji Electric is tumbling almost 8 percent, Sumitomo Metal Mining is slipping more than 5 percent and Socionext is sliding almost 5 percent, while Renesas Electronics and Toyota Tsusho are declining more than 3 percent each. SHIFT, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, BayCurrent and Mitsui Kinzoku Co. are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Taiyo Yuden is soaring more than 11 percent and Murata Manufacturing is surging almost 7 percent, while Omron and TDK are advancing more than 4 percent each. SMC is gaining almost 4 percent, while Hitachi and Pan Pacific International are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 159 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Wednesday but managed to end the day modestly higher. The Dow led the way higher, reaching a new record closing high along with the Nasdaq and S&P 500.

The major averages all ended the day in positive territory. The Dow climbed 182.60 points or 0.4 percent to 60,644.28, the Nasdaq inched up 18.55 points or 0.1 percent to 26,674.73 and the S&P 500 crept up 1.24 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 7,520.36.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the German DAX Index closed just below the unchanged line, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices plummeted on Wednesday as investors continue to anticipate a potential U.S.-Iran agreement, despite the hard line from the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $5.05 or 5.38 percent at $88.84 per barrel.