Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Wednesday, extending the sharp gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 54,200 level, with gains is exporters, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 666.40 or 1.24 percent at 54,215.56, after touching a high of 54,304.65 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 3 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 1 percent, while Toyota is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is surging almost 6 percent, Screen Holdings is adding more than 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing more than2 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging up 0.5 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric, Sony, Panasonic and Canon are all gaining almost 1 percent each.

Among other major gainers, Yaskawa Electric is surging more than 4 percent, while Lasertec, Fanuc, Shiseido, Disco and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are gaining almost 4 percent each. Minebea Mitsumi, Japan Steel Works, Taiyo Yuden and IHI are advancing more than 3 percent each, while Hoya, FUJIFILM and SMC are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Daiichi Sankyo is losing almost 3 percent.

In economic news, the M2 money stock in Japan was up 1.7 percent on year in December, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday - coming in at 1,278.6 trillion yen. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 1.9 percent but steady from the November reading following a downward revision from 1.8 percent.

The M3 money stock was up 1.1 percent on year at 1,627.1 trillion yen, while L money added 2.1 percent to 2m240.9 trillion yen. M2 was up 1.7 percent on year for the fourth quarter of last year, and up 1.2 percent for all of 2025.

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

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after recovering from initial weakness to end Monday's session modestly higher.

The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually ending the day in negative territory. The Dow slid 398.21 points or 0.8 percent to 49,191.99, the Nasdaq edged down 24.03 points or 0.1 percent to 23,709.87 and the S&P 500 dipped 13.53 points or 0.2 percent to 6,963.74.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day narrowly mixed. While the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just below the unchanged line and the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Tuesday, extending a recent surge amid increasing geopolitical risks due to escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have raised output-and-supply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was up $1.55 or 2.61 percent at $61.05 per barrel.