Japanese Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the Nikkei 225 falling a tad below the 33,000 mark, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, with losses across most sectors, led by technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 340.99 points or 1.02 percent to 32,997.71, after hitting a low of 32,857.94 earlier. Japanese stocks closed modestly lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging up 0.5 percent, while Honda is edging down 0.1 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic and Canon are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Sony is losing almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among other major losers, Renesas Electronics is losing almost 4 percent and Daikin Industries is down more than 3 percent, while Dowa Holdings, Yaskawa Electric and TDK are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Kobe Steel is gaining almost 5 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 144 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks ended weak on Wednesday although those from the technology sector managed to briefly emerge higher around mid-morning. Lingering concerns about the impact of rising interest rates on economic growth weighed. The mood was cautious with investors focusing on the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting.

The major averages all ended modestly lower. The Dow ended with a loss of 129.83 points or 0.38 percent at 34,288.64. The S&P 500 settled at 4,446.82 with a loss of 8.77 points or 0.2 percent, while the Nasdaq closed lower by 25.12 points or 0.18 percent at 13,791.65.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 1.03 percent, Germany's DAX ended 0.63 percent down and France's CAC 40 drifted down 0.8 percent. The pan European Stoxx 600 lost 0.73 percent.

Crude oil futures settled sharply higher on Wednesday, buoyed by government data showing a significant jump in U.S. crude shipments last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $2.00 or 2.9 percent at $71.79 a barrel.