The Japanese stock market is slightly lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 26,700 level, following the mostly negative cues overnight from Wall Street, with technology stocks tumbling to mirror their peers on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 57.76 points or 0.22 percent at 26,690.38, after hitting a low of 26,578.03 earlier. Japanese stocks closed significantly lower on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 2 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.2 percent.
In the tech space, Screen Holdings is flat. Advantest is edging down 0.1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is adding more than 1 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is flat. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.5 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.3 percent.
Among the major exporters, Sony, Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are edging down 0.4 percent each, while Panasonic is flat.
Among the other major losers, Mitsubishi Motors is losing more than 5 percent and Recruit Holdings is declining almost 5 percent, while Dentsu Group, T&D Holdings and Maruha Nichiro are slipping more than 4 percent each.
Conversely, Tokyo Electric Power is gaining almost 5 percent, while Toray Industries and Kansai Electric Power are adding almost 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 126 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday, giving back ground following the strong upward move seen in the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a particularly steep drop on the day, ending the session at its lowest closing level since November of 2020.
The Nasdaq climbed off its worst levels of the day but still closed down 270.83 points or 2.4 percent at 11,264.45. The S&P 500 also slid 32.27 points or 0.8 percent to 3,941.48, while the narrow Dow managed to close modestly higher, up 48.38 points or 0.2 percent at 31,928.62.
The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.7 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures slipped on Tuesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to China’s increased Covid-19 curbs. Markets are also worried that aggressive monetary policy tightening by central banks to control inflation could tip the global economy into a recession. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July fell $0.52 or 0.5 percent at $109.77 a barrel.
Market Analysis
Japanese Market Slightly Lower
2022-05-25 02:26:46
