Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly lower on Tuesday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 50,500 level, with weakness in index heavyweights and a mixed performance across most other sectors.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 107.83 points or 0.21 percent at 50,474.11, after hitting a low of 50,417.11 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.3 percent and Toyota is also edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 1 percent, while Advantest is edging down 0.3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic and Sony are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Canon is adding more than 2 percent. Mitsubishi Electric is down more than 1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Sumitomo Pharma is losing more than 3 percent and BayCurrent is declining almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Konica Minolta is jumping almost 6 percent, Disco is surging almost 5 percent, Tokyo Electric Power is gaining more than 4 percent and Kawasaki Heavy Industries is advancing more than 3 percent, while Shionogi and Renesas Electronics are adding almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 155-yen range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved to the upside at the start of trading on Monday but moved lower over the course of the trading session. The major averages pulled back off their early highs and into negative territory.

The major averages staged a short-lived recovery attempt in mid-day trading but all ended the day in the red. The Dow fell 215.67 points or 0.5 percent to 47,739.32, the Nasdaq edged down 32.22 points or 0.1 percent to 23,545.90 and the S&P 500 decreased 23.89 points or 0.4 percent to 6,846.51.

Meanwhile, the major European market indexes ended the day on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped on Monday as the U.S. dollar strengthened ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, which has largely been priced in. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $1.28 or 2.13 percent at $58.80 per barrel.