The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Friday, giving up the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 losing almost 600 point to fall below the 26,000 mark, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders booked profits after the recent gains and amid the continued escalation of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Traders are also concerned about the sudden spike in daily new domestic cornovirus cases after the recent steady decline. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government will extend its COVID-19 pre-emergency designations for 18 prefectures by two weeks until March 21.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 588.44 points or 2.21 percent to 25,988.83, after hitting a low of 25,774.28 earlier. Japanese shares closed significantly higher on Thursday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 5 percent and Toyota is declining almost 3 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 4 percent, Screen Holdings is declining almost 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is down more than 4 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing almost 1 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is slipping more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 2 percent.
Among major exporters, Panasonic is losing almost 3 percent, Sony is declining more than 4 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent and Canon is slipping almost 1 percent.
Among the other major gainers, AGC and Sumitomo Chemical are plunging almost 7 percent each, while Hitachi Zosen and Nippon Sheet Glass are down more than 6 percent. Fujikura and Toho Zinc are sliding more than 5 percent each, while M3, TDK and Honda Motor are slipping almost 5 percent each. JTEKT, Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors are declining more than 4 percent each.
Conversely, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is gaining more than 5 percent, Ricoh is adding more than 4 percent and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is up 3.5 percent.
In economic news, the unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.8 percent in January, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday. That exceeded expectations for 2.7 percent, which would have been unchanged from the December reading. The jobs-to-applicant ratio was 1.20, beating forecasts for 1,16, which would have been steady from the previous month. The participation rate slipped to 61.7 percent, missing forecasts for 61.9 percent – which would have been unchanged from December.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-115 yen-range on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks showed wild swings over the course of the trading day on Thursday, extending the volatility seen in recent sessions. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing in negative territory.
The major averages all ended the day in the red, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq underperformed its counterparts. While the Nasdaq tumbled 214.08 points or 1.6 percent to 13,537.94, the Dow fell 96.69 points or 0.3 percent to 33,794.66 and the S&P 500 slid 23.05 points or 0.5 percent to 4,363.49.
The major European markets also showed substantial moves to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.8 percent, the German DAX Index tumbled by 2.2 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index plunged by 2.6 percent.
U.S. crude oil prices drifted lower on Thursday, retreating from multi-year highs on speculation over a possible nuclear deal with Iran. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down by 2.6 percent at $107.67 a barrel.
Market Analysis
Japanese Market Sharply Lower
2022-03-04 02:19:53
