Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is trading notably lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 42,650 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, automakers and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 245.91 points or 0.57 percent to 42,642.64, after hitting a low of 42,599.07 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing 2.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing more than 1 percent, while Honda is down almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 3 percent, while Tokyo Electron is losing almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony and Panasonic are edging down 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent. Canon is gaining 1.5 percent.

Among other major losers, Daiichi Sankyo is losing more than 6 percent.

Conversely, Mitsui Mining & Smelting is skyrocketing almost 12 percent, Mitsubishi Chemical is gaining almost 4 percent, Mitsui Chemicals is adding more than 3 percent and Asahi Kasei is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 147 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks regained ground over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after moving sharply higher early in the session. The major averages climbed well off their worst levels of the day, although the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 remained in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day down 142.10 points or 0.7 percent at 21,172.86 after plunging by as much as 1.9 percent in early trading. The S&P 500 also dipped 15.59 points or 0.2 percent to 6,395.78, while the Dow inched up 16.04 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 44,938.31.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index shot up 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down 0.1 percent and the German DAX Index slid 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories in the U.S. decreased much more than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was up $0.79 or 1.3 percent at $63.14 a barrel.