Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - Extending the losses in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is modestly lower on Tuesday, with the Nikkei 225 falling well below the 33,400 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, dragged by weakness in some index heavyweights.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 122.04 points or 0.36 percent at 33,325.63, after hitting a low of 33,305.51 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging up 0.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.2 percent and Toyota is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging up 0.3 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 2 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is flat.

The major exporters are mixed. Canon is gaining almost 1 percent and Sony is edging up 0.1 percent, while Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 2 percent.

Among the other major losers, Sharp is losing almost 7 percent and Denso is down almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Sojitz is soaring almost 8 percent and Nippon Paper Industries is gaining more than 5 percent, while Yokohama Rubber and Rakuten Group are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 148 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Monday, extending the lackluster performance seen during last Friday's holiday-shortened session. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing modestly lower.

The Dow slipped 56.68 points or 0.2 percent to 35,333.47 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.91 points or 0.2 percent to 4,550.43, pulling back off their best closing levels in over three months, while the Nasdaq edged down 9.83 points or 0.1 percent to 14,241.02.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index all fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude Oil prices fell on Monday with traders speculating on the likely outcome of Thursday's OPEC meeting to discuss production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January fell $0.68 or 0.9 percent at $74.86 a barrel.