Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - Weakness in the technology and financial sector is dragging the Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is falling to nearly the 32,400 level, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 94.01 points or 0.29 percent to 32,400.65, after hitting a low of 32,313.80 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is surging almost 6 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing 1.5 percent and Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 1 percent, Screen Holdings is adding more than 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is down more than 1 percent.

Among major exporters, Canon is edging down 0.5 percent, Sony is losing more than 1 percent and Panasonic is declining almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among other major losers, Seven & I Holdings is losing almost 5 percent, Rakuten Group is declining almost 4 percent and NTT Data is down more than 3 percent, while JTEKT, Recruit Holdings and Nintendo are slipping almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 149 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Thursday, giving back ground after trending higher over the past several sessions. The major averages showed a lack of direction early in the session before coming under pressure in the early afternoon.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained firmly negative. The Dow fell 173.73 points or 0.5 percent to 33,631.14, the Nasdaq slid 85.46 points or 0.6 percent to 13,574.22 and the S&P 500 declined 27.34 points or 0.6 percent to 4,349.61.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index slipped by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Thursday, falling for a third straight session, after data showed a sharp jump in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended October 6th. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $0.58 or about 0.7 percent at $82.91 a barrel.