Japanese Market Slightly Higher

Adding to the gains in the previous session, the Japanese stock market is slightly higher in choppy trading on Friday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 is moving to stay just below the 39,000 mark, with strong gains in technology stocks partially offset by weakness in exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 35.44 points or 0.09 percent to 38,961.07, after touching a high of 39,297.59 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also edging down 0.4 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are flat.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, Screen Holdings is adding almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing almost 5 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 1 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is declining more than 1 percent.

Among major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent, while Sony is declining almost 2 percent, Canon is edging down 0.2 percent and Panasonic is slipping almost 1 percent.

Among other major gainers, Fanuc is surging almost 6 percent, while Ebara, Shiseido, Lasertec, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Omron and Daikin Industries are gaining almost 5 percent each. Hino Motors, OKUMA and ZOZO are adding more than 4 percent each, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Casio Computer are advancing almost 4 percent each. Yaskawa Electric is rising more than 3 percent and SMC is up almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Recruit Holdings is declining almost 4 percent and Inpex is losing almost 3 percent.

In economic news, overall consumer prices in the Tokyo region of Japan were up 2.2 percent on year in September, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday. That was in line with forecasts and was down from 2.6 percent in August. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile costs of food, rose an annual 2.0 percent – again matching expectations and slowing from 2.4 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 145 yen-range on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved back to the upside during trading on Thursday following the pullback seen in the previous session. The major averages gave back ground after an early rally but managed to end the day firmly into positive territory.

The S&P 500 rose 23.11 points or 0.4 percent to a new record closing high of 5,745.37, the Dow advanced 260.36 points or 0.6 percent to 42,175.11 and the Nasdaq climbed 108.09 points or 0.6 percent to 18,190.29.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index shot up by 2.3 percent, the German DAX Index jumped by 1.7 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Thursday, weighed down by concerns about excess supply in the market after reports said OPEC will return 2.2 million barrels per day of production cuts back into the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended down $2.02 or 2.9 percent at $67.67 a barrel.

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