Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Friday, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 falling below the 32,600 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, with weakness across most sectors, led by exporters and financial stocks. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 189.73 points or 0.58 percent to 32,583.29, after hitting a low of 32,327.90 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 2 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging down 0.2 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.5 percent. Screen Holdings is flat.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing more than 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is edging down 0.1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down almost 1 percent.

Among major exporters, Panasonic is declining more than 2 percent and Sony is edging down 0.3 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are losing almost 1 percent each.

Among other major losers, Eisai is plunging almost 7 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

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

On Wall Street, stocks saw significant weakness during trading on Thursday, extending the pullback seen during Wednesday's session. The major averages regained some ground after an early sell-off but remained notably lower.

After tumbling by more than 500 points in morning trading, the Dow ended the day down 366.38 points or 1.1 percent at 33,922.26. The Nasdaq slumped 112.61 points or 0.8 percent to 13,679.04 and the S&P 500 slid 35.23 points or 0.8 percent to 4,11.59.

The major European markets also showed significant moves to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index plunged 3.1 percent, the German DAX Index dove by 2.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index tumbled by 2.2 percent.

Crude oil futures settled roughly flat on Thursday with traders weighing the impact of higher interest rates on growth and energy demand against data showing a drop in crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August settled at $71.80 a barrel, up a penny from the previous close.