TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market, which resumed trading after a holiday on Monday, recovered after a weak start and is modestly higher.
Nevertheless, investors remained cautious amid worries about a global economic slowdown and as they looked ahead to the British parliament's vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 76.66 points or 0.38 percent to 20,436.36, after falling to a low of 20,204.43 earlier. The Japanese market was closed for the 'Coming of Age Day' holiday on Monday.
The major exporters are mixed despite a slightly weaker yen. Panasonic is losing almost 2 percent and Canon is down 0.5 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is rising 2 percent and Sony is advancing more than 1 percent.
In the tech sector, Tokyo Electron is rising almost 3 percent and Advantest is higher by more than 1 percent.
Among the major automakers, Honda and Toyota are edging higher by less than 0.1 percent each. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is advancing 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is rising more than 1 percent.
In the oil space, Inpex is declining almost 1 percent and Japan Petroleum is unchanged after crude oil prices fell 2 percent overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Olympus is rising almost 13 percent and Hitachi is gaining more than 4 percent. Toto, Shiseido Co. and Nippon Express are all higher by more than 2 percent each.
On the flip side, Pacific Metals is losing more than 5 percent, while SoftBank, Panasonic and Asahi Group are all declining more than 2 percent each.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan that the M2 money stock in Japan was up 2.4 percent on year in December, coming in at 1,014.2 trillion yen. That was in line with expectations following the 2.3 percent gain in November.
The M3 money stock climbed an annual 2.1 percent to 1,011.9 trillion yen - unchanged and in line with forecasts. The L money stock was unchanged at 1.9 percent, standing at 1,790.6 trillion yen.
Japan will also release December numbers for bankruptcies and machine tool orders today.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 108 yen-range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks climbed off worst levels, but closed lower on Monday. Concerns about the global economic outlook contributed to the initial weakness on Wall Street following the release of disappointing Chinese trade data. A lack of major U.S. economic data also kept some traders on the sidelines along with uncertainty about the impact of the ongoing government shutdown.
The Dow fell 86.11 points or 0.4 percent to 23,909.84, the Nasdaq slid 65.56 points or 0.9 percent to 6,905.92 and the S&P 500 dropped 13.65 points or 0.5 percent to 2,582.61.
The major European markets also moved to the downside on Monday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 0.9 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index fell by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures drifted down sharply on Monday, as worries about energy demand resurfaced on disappointing trade data from China. WTI crude for February declined $1.08 or 2.1 percent to close at $50.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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