The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Wednesday, extending the sharp losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling over 500 points to stay above the 26,800 level, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street, amid concerns about the economic impact of the weaker yen combined with the effects of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and the imminent aggressive monetary policy tightening by the US Federal Reserve.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 529.13 points or 1.93 percent at 26,821.17, after hitting a low of 26,801.79 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is declining more than 5 percent and Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.
In the tech space, Screen Holdings is losing almost 4 percent, Advantest is declining almost 5 percent and Tokyo Electron is down more than 4 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is losing more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down more than 2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is declining almost 1 percent.
Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are losing almost 3 percent each, while Canon is declining almost 1 percent and Panasonic is down more than 3 percent.
Among the other major losers, Nippon Express is losing more than 5 percent, while Hitachi is down almost 5 percent. Nippon Sheet Glass, Hino Motors and Fuji Electric are declining more than 4 percent each, while Japan Steel Works, Toho Zinc, Sojitz and Sumitomo Metal Mining are slipping almost 4 percent each. Subaru and Taiyo Yuden are declining more than 3 percent each.
Conversely, Astellas Pharma is gaining more than 4 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 123 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday, extending the significant downward move seen in the previous session. The major averages all moved to the downside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq showing another particularly steep drop.
After tumbling by 2.3 percent during trading on Tuesday, the Nasdaq plunged 315.35 points or 2.2 percent to 13,888.82. The S&P 500 also slumped 43.97 points or 1 percent to 4,481.15, while the narrower Dow posted a more modest loss, falling 144.67 points or 0.4 percent to 34,496.51.
The major European markets also closed sharply lower on the day. Germany’s DAX tumbled 1.89 percent, France’s CAC 40 plunged 2.21 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 ended down 0.34 percent.
Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday, pushing the most active crude futures contracts to their lowest close in about three weeks, after data showed a larger than expected increase in crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended down by $5.73 or about 5.6% at $96.23 a barrel.
Market Analysis
Japanese Market Sharply Lower
2022-04-07 02:29:50
