Japanese Market Sharply Lower

TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese market is trading sharply lower on Thursday, snapping the three-session winning streak, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 69,500 level, with weakness in technology stocks partially offset by gains…

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 1,000.93 points or 1.42 percent to 69,474.03, after hitting a low of 68,676.26 earlier. Japanese stocks ended notably higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 4 percent and Honda is also adding almost 4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling almost 7 percent, Screen Holdings is declining more than 5 percent and Tokyo Electron is slipping almost 5 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are advancing almost 3 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 2 percent.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 2 percent and Panasonic tumbling almost 4 percent, while Sony is advancing almost 4 percent and Canon is gaining almost 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Kioxia Holdings is tumbling almost 13 percent and Mitsui Kinzoku is plunging more than 9 percent, while Furukawa Electric, Ibiden and Murata Manufacturing are slipping almost 8 percent each. Disco is sliding almost 7 percent, while Taiyo Yuden and Fujikura are declining more than 6 percent each. Resonac Holdings, Fuji Electric, Lasertec and Minebea Mitsumi are losing more than 5 percent each.

Conversely, Nomura Research Institute, BayCurrent and Japan Airlines are soaring almost 7 percent each, while NEC, CyberAgent, SHIFT, Mercari, Tokio Marine and Konami Group are jumping almost 6 percent each. M3 and Olympus are surging more than 5 percent each, while Trend Micro, Otsuka Holdings, Shiseido and ANA Holdings are advancing almost 5 percent each.

In economic news, the monetary base in Japan was down 13.7 percent on year in June, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday - coming in at 559.203 trillion yen. That missed expectations for a fall of 10.0 percent following the 12.2 percent decline in May. Banknotes in circulation fell 1.8 percent, while coins in circulation slipped 1.1percent. Current account balances lost 16.4 percent, including a 14.6 percent drop in reserve balances. For the second quarter of 2026, the monetary base was down an annual 12.4 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 162 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks were higher for much of Wednesday's trade but a late slump saw them finish under water. The weakness that emerged on Wall Street was the result of ongoing concerns that the AI companies and chipmakers may be overbought - which had the biggest effect on the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

The Dow dipped 13.96 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 52,305.24, coming off a record closing high. The NASDAQ sank 173.69 points or 0.66 percent to close at 26.040.03 and the S&) 500 fell 16.13 points or 0.22 percent to end at 7,483.23.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. The UK's FTSE 100 drifted down 0.18 percent and France's CAC 40 closed 0.79 percent down, while Germany's DAX moved up 0.18 percent.

Crude oil prices tumbled again on Wednesday amid gradual recovery in tanker traffic across the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $1.12 or 1.61 percent at $68.38 per barrel.