Japanese Market Tumbles; Down 2.8%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is tumbling on Monday, giving up the gains in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 plummeting 800 points to below the 27,900 level, following the global sell-off on Friday, with weakness across all sectors as traders digested US Fed Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated remarks at the Jackson Hole economic symposium, which were seen as more hawkish than some had hoped.

Powell said he expects to keep rates at higher levels, and that the bank's efforts to combat inflation will cause "some pain."

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 796.87 or 2.78 percent at 27,844.51, after hitting a low of 27,788.12 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining more than 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.4 percent and Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 4 percent, Tokyo Electron declining almost 5 percent and Screen Holdings is slipping almost 4 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down almost 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.3 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are weak, with Panasonic and Canon losing more than 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are declining almost 3 percent each. Among the other major losers, M3 is plummeting almost 7 percent and Recruit Holdings is plunging almost 6 percent, while Terumo and Omron are losing more than 5 percent each. Yamaha and Daikin Industries are slipping almost 5 percent, while Keyence, Dentsu Group, Minebea Mitsumi, Fuji Electric and Yaskawa Electric are declining more than 4 percent each. Tokyo Electric Power is down almost 4 percent.

Conversely, there are no major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-138 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Friday with traders reacting negatively to remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The major averages more than offset the upward move seen over the two previous sessions, falling to their lowest levels in a month.

The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the session at their worst levels of the day. The Dow plunged 1,008.38 points or 3 percent to 32,283.40, the Nasdaq dove 497.56 points or 3.9 percent to 12,141.71 and the S&P 500 plummeted 141.46 points or 3.4 percent to 4,057.66.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index plunged 2.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Friday, recovering well following early weakness after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he expects to keep rates at higher levels. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.54 or about 0.6 percent at $93.06 a barrel, rebounding from a low of $91.10.