The Japanese stock market declined notably on Friday, breaking a five-session winning streak, influenced by broadly negative signals from global markets overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped below the 38,800 mark, with losses in major index heavyweights and tech stocks partially mitigated by gains in financial stocks.
The Nikkei 225 Index shed 157.17 points, or 0.40%, to settle at 38,763.09, after hitting an intraday low of 38,539.56. This follows a sharp rise in Japanese stocks on Thursday.
Key market player SoftBank Group saw a decline of nearly 1%, while Uniqlo's parent company, Fast Retailing, also fell by approximately 1%. Among automakers, Honda inched up by 0.1%, and Toyota rose by over 1%.
In the tech sector, Advantest slightly dipped by 0.1% and Tokyo Electron dropped more than 2%, whereas Screen Holdings edged up by 0.3%.
Financial stocks performed robustly, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial growing by more than 3%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial increasing by over 2%, and Mizuho Financial up almost 1%.
Among major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic each rose by 0.5%, while Canon and Sony saw marginal declines between 0.1% and 0.3%.
In a contrast, Sumitomo Pharma and CyberAgent both declined by more than 4%, and Dentsu Group and Terumo each fell by over 3%. On the contrary, Japan Steel Works surged by more than 5%, and Renesas Electronics gained nearly 3%.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 155 yen range on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks initially moved up on Thursday but experienced fluctuations throughout the day, ultimately closing slightly lower. This movement partially offset the strong rises noted in the two prior sessions. The Dow Jones briefly surpassed 40,000 in early trading but ended the day down 38.62 points, or 0.1%, at 39,869.38. The S&P 500 decreased by 11.05 points, or 0.2%, to 5,297.10, and the Nasdaq fell 44.07 points, or 0.3%, to 16,698.32.
European markets also trended downward. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.1%, while the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index fell by 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively.
Crude oil prices increased on Thursday, bolstered by recent data showing a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. crude inventories the previous week and optimism regarding potential interest rate cuts in September. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for June closed at $79.23 per barrel, up by $0.60.