Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Friday, snapping a five-session winning streak, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 37,900 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 551.60 points or 1.44 percent to 37,881.38, after hitting a low of 37,748.17 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 2 percent and Honda is down more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 4 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are declining more than 3 percent each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is declining almost 3 percent and Mitsubishi Electric losing more than 1 percent, while Canon and Panasonic are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

Among other major losers, Disco is losing almost 5 percent and Renesas Electronics is down more than 4 percent, while Recruit Holdings, Mazda Motor, Nintendo and Hino Motors are declining more than 3 percent each. Hoya, Fujikura, Fuji Electric and Ricoh are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Japan Tokai Carbon is surging more than 5 percent and Eisai is adding almost 3 percent.

In economic news, overall inflation in the Tokyo region of Japan was up 3.4 percent on year in May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications or MIAC, said on Friday. That matched forecasts and easing from 3.5 percent in April. Core CPI was up an annual 3.6 percent - exceeding expectations for 3.5 percent and up from 3.4 percent in the previous month.

The MIAC also said the unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent in April. That was in line with expectations and unchanged from the March reading. The jobs-to-applicant ratio was 1.26 - in lie with forecasts and steady from the previous month. The participation rate improved to 63.7 percent, up from 63.3 percent a month earlier.

Industrial production in Japan was down 0.9 percent on month in April, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Friday. That beat forecasts for a decline of 1.4 percent following the 0.2 percent increase in March. On a yearly basis, industrial production was up 0.7 percent. Upon the release of the data, the METI maintained its assessment of industrial production, saying that it continues to fluctuate indecisively. The METI's forecast for industrial production suggests an increase of 9.0 percent on month in May and a decline of 3.4 percent in June.

The METI also said the value of retail sales in Japan was up 3.3 percent on year in April - coming in at 12.925 trillion yen. That beat forecasts for n increase of 2.9 percent and was up from 3.1 percent in March.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 143 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Thursday after failing to sustain a strong move to the upside early in the session. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing moderately higher.

The Dow rose 117.03 points or 0.3 percent to 42,215.73, the Nasdaq climbed 74.93 points or 0.4 percent to 19,175.87 and the S&P 500 increased 23.62 points or 0.4 percent to 5,912.17.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.4 percent on the day, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower Thursday amid lingering supply concerns amid the possibility OPEC may accelerate oil production hikes in July. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery tumbled $0.90 or 1.5 percent to $60.94 a barrel.