Japanese Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is slightly lower in choppy trading on Thursday, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 staying above the 27,400 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with exporters and financial stocks leading the declines. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 10.28 points or 0.04 percent to 27,421.56, after hitting a low of 27,352.80 and a high of 27,450.26 earlier. Japanese stocks closed significantly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are losing more than 1 percent each.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are gaining more than 1 percent, while Advantest is adding almost 3 percent.

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

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent and Panasonic is edging down 0.2 percent, while Sony is flat. Canon is plunging almost 7 percent after reporting disappointing third-quarter results and also slashed its annual net profit forecast.

Among the other major losers, Seiko Epson is plunging almost 5 percent, while Asahi Group and Concordia Financial are losing more than 4 percent each. Chiba Bank, Fukuoka Financial and Resona Holdings are slipping almost 4 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Trust, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Nitto Denko are down more than 3 percent each. Ricoh, CyberAgent and Toray Industries are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Hitachi Construction Machinery is gaining almost 5 percent, while Yaskawa Electric and Tokyo Electric Power are up almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the 146 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks indexes went on a roller coaster ride over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after closing sharply higher for three straight sessions. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed wild swings after an early sell-off before eventually ending the session down 228.12 points or 2.0 percent to 10,970.99.

The S&P 500 also slid 28.51 points or 0.7 percent to 3,830.60, while the narrower Dow inched up 2.37 points or less than a tenth of a percent to a new one-month closing high of 31,839.11.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday, buoyed by data showing a drop in gasoline stockpiles and a weak U.S. dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December spiked $2.59 or 3 percent at $87.91 a barrel.