Japanese Market Tumbling; Down 2%

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Tuesday after the long weekend, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 slipping more than 600 points to below the 26,600 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, amid heightened geopolitical tensions involving Russia-Ukraine and the U.S.-China and rising risk of a global recession.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 613.94 points or 2.26 percent at 26,502.17, after hitting a low of 26,494.98 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Friday ahead of the holiday on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is flat.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 4 percent, while Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are declining more than 4 percent each. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.4 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are lower, with Sony losing almost 4 percent, Panasonic down more than 1 percent, Canon slipping more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric edging down 0.3 percent. Among the other major losers, Nidec is soaring more than 7 percent, while SMC, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Nikon are surging almost 5 percent. Mitsubishi Motors and Minebea Mitsumi are advancing more than 4 percent, while Seiko Epson and Yaskawa Electric are gaining almost 4 percent each. TDK, Keyence and Fanuc are adding more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Tokyo Gas is gaining almost 4 percent and Takashimaya is adding almost 3 percent.

In economic news, Japan posted a current account surplus of 58.9 billion yen in August, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday - down 96.1 percent on year. That missed forecasts for a surplus of 121.8 billion yen and was down from 229 billion yen in July. Exports were up 23.7 percent on year at 8.059 trillion yen, while imports jumped an annual 52.9 percent to 10.550 trillion yen for a trade deficit of 2.490 trillion yen. The capital account saw a deficit of 20.7 billion yen, while the financial account had a surplus of 557.2 billion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 145 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks closed lower on Monday, extending recent losses, as worries about interest rate hikes and slowing growth continued to weigh on sentiment. Technology stocks fell on Biden administration's decision to impose export controls on China.

The major averages all ended in negative territory. The Dow ended with a loss of 93.91 points or 0.32 percent at 29,202.88. The S&P 500 settled at 3,612.39, losing 27.27 points or 0.75 percent, while the Nasdaq ended with a loss of 110.30 points or 1.04 percent at 10,542.10, the lowest close in over 2 years.

The major European markets also closed weak on the day, with The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 both ending lower by 0.45 percent, and Germany's DAX settling flat.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Monday as soft data from China raised concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $1.51 or 1.6 percent at 91.13 a barrel.