Japanese Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Wednesday, reversing the losses in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 66,200 level, with gains in index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 784.70 or 1.20 percent at 66,265.97, after touching a high of 66,518.98 earlier. Japanese stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging almost 5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.2 percent, while Toyota is edging up 0.1 percent.

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

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, Mizuho Financial is advancing more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Sony is edging down 0.5 percent. Canon is flat.

Among other major gainers, Taiyo Yuden is jumping almost 7 percent and Fujikura is surging almost 6 percent each. Sumco and Resonac Holdings are advancing almost 5 percent each, while Minebea Mitsumi, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Furukawa Electric are gaining almost 4 percent each. Konica Minolta, JTEKT and Sumitomo Metal Mining are adding more than 3 percent each, while Kioxia Holdings, Sumitomo Pharma, Nikon and Mitsui Kinzoku are up almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, the value of retail sales in Japan was up 2.7 percent on year in August, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Wednesday - coming in at 13.052 trillion yen. That missed forecasts for an increase of 3.3 percent following the downwardly revised 3.7 percent gain in July (originally 4.0 percent).

The METI also said industrial production in Japan was down a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent on month in August. That was well shy of forecasts for an increase of 1.4 percent following the 0.2 percent decline in July. On a yearly basis, industrial production was up 3.4 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 156 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout the trading session on Tuesday, with the major averages spending the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line following the weakness seen during the previous session.

The major averages eventually ended the day modestly lower. The Dow fell 131.59 points or 0.3 percent to 51,349.92, the Nasdaq edged down 22.84 points or 0.1 percent to 26,797.54 and the S&P 500 dipped 12.85 points or 0.2 percent to 6,760.84.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both fell by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices could not hold early gains and turned significantly lower Tuesday on reports that crude oil exports from Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports are recovering from an attack on a key pipeline earlier this month. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $2.90 or 3.1 percent to $89.70 a barrel.