Japanese Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - Extending the losses the previous two sessions, the Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Tuesday, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 32,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with losses across most sectors, led by technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 446.96 points or 1.34 percent at 32,784.31, after hitting a low of 32,726.68 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably lower on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing almost 5 percent, Tokyo Electron is down almost 4 percent each and Screen Holdings is declining more than 4 percent.

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

The major exporters are mixed. Panasonic is losing more than 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 2 percent, while Sony is gaining almost 1 percent and Canon is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Renesas Electronics is losing almost 5 percent, while Recruit Holdings, Lasertec, Sumco and Yaskawa Electric are declining more than 3 percent each. TDK, Shin-Etsu Chemical and NEC are down almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers

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

On Wall Street, stocks showed a notable move to the downside in early trading on Monday, giving back ground after turning in a strong performance last Friday. The major averages subsequently climbed well off their worst levels but still ended the day in negative territory.

The Nasdaq slid 119.54 points or 0.8 percent to 14,185.49 and the S&P 500 fell 24.85 points or 0.5 percent to 4,569.78, while the narrower Dow edged down 41.06 points or 0.1 percent to 36,204.44 after falling more than 200 points early in the session.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day narrowly mixed. While the German DAX Index crept up by less than 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both edged down by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Monday, pushing the most active futures contract to a nearly three-week low amid worries about the outlook for demand and skepticism about OPEC output cuts. The dollar's rise also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.03 or 1.4 percent at $73.04 a barrel, the lowest settlement since November 16.