The Japanese stock market is trading significantly higher on Wednesday, recouping some of the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 36,400 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 233.46 or 0.64 percent at 36,436.68, after touching a high of 36,675.07 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly lower on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 2 percent and Toyota is advancing almost 3 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, Screen Holdings is adding almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.2 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is adding more than 1 percent.
Among the major exporters, Canon is edging up 0.3 percent and Panasonic is gaining more than 1 percent, while Sony is edging down 0.2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is declining almost 1 percent.
Among other major gainers, M3 is surging more than 5 percent, while Credit Saison and Sumco are gaining almost 4 percent each. Mazda Motor, Kubota, Mercari and Dowa Holdings are gaining more than 3 percent each. T&D Holdings, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Furukawa Electric and Hino Motors are advancing almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is declining almost 4 percent and IHI is losing more than 3 percent.
In economic news, Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 695.3 billion yen in August, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday. That beat forecasts for a shortfall of 1,380 trillion yen following the 628.7 billion yen deficit in July. Exports were up 5.6 percent on year, shy of expectations for an increase of 10.0 percent and slowing from the 10.2 percent gain in the previous month. Imports rose an annual 2.3 percent versus forecasts for a jump of 13.4 percent and down from 16.6 percent a month earlier.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 141 yen-range on Wednesday.
On the Wall Street, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after moving mostly higher early in the session. The Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs in early trading but subsequently pulled back near the unchanged line.
The major averages ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Dow edged down 15.90 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 41,606.18, the S&P 500 inched up 1.49 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,634.58 and the Nasdaq rose 35.93 points or 0.2 percent to 17,628.06.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved higher on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German Index and the French CAC 40 Index both climbed by 0.5 percent.
Crude oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday as concerns about tight supply in the market offset continued uncertainty about the outlook for demand from China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.10 or 1.5 percent at $71.19 a barrel.
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