FX.co ★ Japanese Market Significantly Lower

In Wednesday trading, the Japanese stock market saw significant declines, extending the minor losses experienced in the previous session. Influenced by mixed signals from Wall Street overnight, the Nikkei 225 index fell below the 35,900 mark, with widespread sectoral weakness, notably among index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index dropped by 268.33 points or 0.74 percent to settle at 35,890.83, having dipped to a low of 35,730.52 earlier in the day. On Tuesday, Japanese stocks had closed with marginal losses.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group inched up by 0.2 percent, whereas Fast Retailing, operator of Uniqlo, declined by 1.5 percent. In the automotive sector, Honda saw a loss of over 1 percent while Toyota decreased by nearly 2 percent.

In the technology sector, Advantest and Screen Holdings each shed almost 1 percent, whereas Tokyo Electron gained more than 1 percent.

Within the banking sector, Mizuho Financial fell by over 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial dropped by nearly 1 percent. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial remained flat.

Among major exporters, Sony rose by 0.2 percent, while Panasonic declined by over 1 percent, and Mitsubishi Electric decreased by nearly 1 percent. Canon remained flat.

Other notable losers included Tokyo Gas, which slid by over 5 percent, and Osaka Gas, which fell by nearly 5 percent. Tokyu Fudosan and Sapporo Holdings each declined by almost 4 percent. Additionally, Nippon Steel, Mitsubishi Motors, and Amada each decreased by more than 3 percent. Subaru, Nomura Holdings, Inpex, JTEKT, Terumo, Keisei Electric Railway, Idemitsu Kosan, and Nissui each lost nearly 3 percent.

Conversely, Fujitsu saw a gain of almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the higher 141 yen-range on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks were volatile throughout Tuesday but ended the day mostly higher. Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 continued the strong gains from Monday’s session, although the narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average diverged from this uptrend.

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 saw continued gains towards the close, reaching session highs. The Nasdaq climbed 141.28 points or 0.8 percent to 17,025.88, and the S&P 500 rose 24.47 points or 0.5 percent to 5,495.52. However, the Dow dipped by 92.63 points or 0.2 percent to 40,736.96.

In Europe, major markets also moved downwards on Tuesday. The German DAX Index dropped 1.0 percent, the UK's FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.8 percent, and the French CAC 40 Index slipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday due to concerns over global economic health and ahead of inflation data. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery decreased by $2.43 or 3.54 percent to settle at $66.28 per barrel.