Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - Adding to the losses in the previous session, the Japanese market is notably lower on Thursday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 39,400 level, with losses in index heavyweights and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 223.74 points or 0.57 percent to 39,358.07, after hitting a low of 39,065.31 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing 1.5 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent, while Honda is also declining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.1 percent, Tokyo Electron is losing almost 1 percent and Screen Holdings is declining almost 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining 1.5 percent, Mizuho Financial is adding more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is up almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon and Panasonic are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while Sony is losing more than 1 percent. Mitsubishi Electric is adding more than 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Mercari and Seven & I are losing more than 3 percent each, while Shimizu, M3, Mitsui Fudosan and Terumo are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Inpex is surging more than 5 percent, while Resona Holdings and Japan Steel Works are adding more than 3 percent each. Chiba Bank, Socionext, Fukuoka Financial and Concordia Financial are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, the M2 money stock in Japan was up 2.5 percent on year in March, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday - coming in at 1,243.9 trillion yen. That exceeded expectations for an increase of 2.4 percent, which would have been unchanged from the February reading following a downward revision from 2.5 percent.

The M3 money stock rose an annual 1.8 percent for the third straight month to 1,596.8 trillion yen. The L money stock gained 2.1 percent on year to 2,127.2 trillion yen. For the first quarter of 2024, M2 was up 2.5 percent on year, M3 rose 1.8 percent and L was up 2.2 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 152 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower in early trading on Wednesday and continued to see significant weakness throughout the session. The major averages all showed notable moves to the downside, with the Dow falling to its lowest closing level in almost two months.

The major averages remained firmly negative going into the close of trading. The Dow tumbled 422.16 points or 1.1 percent to 38,461.51, the Nasdaq slid 136.28 points or 0.8 percent to 16,170.36 and the S&P 500 slumped 49.27 points or 1.0 percent to 5,160.64.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed after seeing strength earlier in the session. While the French CAC 40 Index edge down by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday on rising geopolitical tensions amid reports of a likely strike by Iran against Israel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.98 at $86.21 a barrel.