Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading notably lower on Tuesday, snapping a five-session winning streak, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 68,950 level, with weakness in technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks and a mixed performance in most other sectors.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 280.71 points or 0.41 percent at 68,939.54, after hitting a low of 68,579.60 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging almost 5 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest, Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are losing more than 2 percent each.

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

The major exporters are mostly lower. Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 1 percent. Sony and Canon are losing more than 1 percent each, while Panasonic is down almost 1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Ajinomoto and Konica Minolta are losing more than 3 percent each, while Yamato Holdings, Taiyo Yuden, SHIFT, NEXON and Murata Manufacturing are declining almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Furukawa Electric is jumping more than 7 percent, while Sumitomo Metal Mining, Fujikura and JTEKT are advancing more than 4 percent each. NTN, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Japan Steel Works, Nippon Yusen K.K. and Renesas Electronics are gaining almost 4 percent each, while Mitsubishi Materials, Tokai Carbon, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Resonac Holdings are adding more than 3 percent each. Trend Micro is up almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 159 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction early in the session on Monday but moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day. The major averages all moved to the downside, extending the modest pullback seen during last Friday's session.

The S&P 500 ended the day near its lows of the session, down 40.70 points or 0.5 percent at 7,745.06, pulling back further off the record closing high set last Thursday. The narrower Dow also slid 272.63 points or 0.5 percent to 53,459.78, while the Nasdaq fell 84.25 points or 0.3 percent to 26,644.91.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.7 percent, the German DAX Index declined by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Monday, reflecting concerns about a re-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery surged $2.28 or 2.8 percent to $84.68 a barrel.