Japanese Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly lower on Wednesday after opening in the green, giving up some of the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 27,600 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders reacted to higher-than-expected US inflation reading, which supports a case for further interest rate hikes. They are also assessing the formal nomination of academic Kazuo Ueda as the next Bank of Japan governor.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 12.35 or 0.04 percent at 27,590.42, after hitting a low of 27,580.79 and a high of 27,720.27 earlier. Japanese stocks ended notably higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is up more than 1 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings and Advantest are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is gaining almost 1 percent and Panasonic is adding more than 1 percent, while Sony is edging down 0.2 percent. Mitsubishi Electric is flat.

Among the other major gainers, Citizen Watch is soaring more than 11 percent, while Rakuten Group and Mitsubishi Chemical are surging almost 5 percent each. T&D Holdings is gaining more than 4 percent and Kubota is adding more than 3 percent, while GS Yuasa and Hino Motors are advancing almost percent each.

Conversely, Recruit Holdings is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-132 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks were on a volatile ride Tuesday that saw them finish on opposite sides of the unchanged line after showing considerable strength in the previous session.

The Dow slumped 162.12 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 34,083 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.96 points or 0.02 percent to end at 4,136.33, while the NASDAQ advanced 70.99 points or 0.60 percent to close at 11,962.78

The major European markets also were mixed on the day. The French CAC 40 Index perked 0.07 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.08 percent and the German DAX Index slipped by 0.11 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped on Tuesday afternoon, dropping after the release of the U.S. inflation data before coming up off daily lows. West Texas Intermediate was down $1.01 or 1.26 percent to $79.13 per barrel, coming off a low of $77.46 earlier in the day.