Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 staying just above the 28,000 mark, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, with the losers led by exporters and technology stocks on supply chain concerns amid growing unrest in China due to widespread protests against the government's zero-Covid policy that led to lockdowns in several cities.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 119.60 points or 0.42 percent at 28,043.23, after hitting a low of 27,899.98 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is slipping almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing 1.5 percent, Screen Holdings is slipping almost 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.4 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is adding almost 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.3 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower, with Sony losing almost 1 percent, Panasonic declining more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric slipping more than 1 percent, while Canon gaining almost 1 percent. In other news, shares in Eisai are plunging almost 10 percent after the pharma company reported a second death potentially linked to its experimental drug for Alzheimer's disease developed with Biogen.

Among the other major losers, Alps Alpine is losing more than 3 percent.

Conversely, Taiheiyo Cement and Sumitomo Osaka Cement are gaining more than 3 percent each.

In economic news, the unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent in October, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Tuesday. That missed expectations for 2.5 percent, although it was unchanged from the September reading. The job-to-applicant ratio was 1.35, in line with forecasts and up from 1.34 in the previous month. The participation rate ticked down to 62.8 percent, shy of expectations for 63.0 percent - which would have been unchanged from the September reading.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 139 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading session on Monday, largely offsetting the strong upward move seen last week. With the steep drop on the day, the Dow pulled back well off last Friday's seven-month closing high.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained firmly negative. The Dow tumbled 497.57 points or 1.5 percent to 33,849.46, the Nasdaq plunged 176.86 points or 1.6 percent to 11,049.50 and the S&P 500 dove 62.18 points or 1.5 percent to 3,963.94.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index tumbled 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices shook off early weakness and moved higher on Monday amid speculation that OPEC will seriously consider a new production cut at its meeting later this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January gained $0.96 or 1.3 percent at $77.24 a barrel.