TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is rising on Wednesday and the safe-haven yen weakened following the overnight gains on Wall Street as worries about trade tensions eased after the U.S. said it will delay imposing tariffs on certain Chinese products. Data showing a surprise rebound in Japan's core machinery orders in June also boosted sentiment.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 161.61 points or 0.79 percent to 20,617.05, after touching a high of 20,697.42 in early trades. Japanese shares hit a one-week low on Tuesday.
The major exporters are higher as the yen weakened. Mitsubishi Electric is rising more than 1 percent, Canon is advancing almost 1 percent, Sony is higher by 0.6 percent and Panasonic is up 0.2 percent.
In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 2 percent, while Advantest is lower by 0.2 percent.
Market heavyweight SoftBank is rising more than 2 percent and Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent. In the auto sector, Honda Motor is rising almost 1 percent and Toyota Motor is advancing more than 1 percent.
Among oil stocks, Japan Petroleum is gaining more than 8 percent and Inpex is rising almost 3 percent after a surge in crude oil prices overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Screen Holdings is gaining almost 7 percent, Taiyo Yuden is higher by more than 6 percent and TDK Corp. is rising almost 5 percent.
On the flip side, Credit Saison is losing almost 2 percent.
On the economic front, the Cabinet Office said that the total value of core machine orders in Japan soared a seasonally adjusted 13.9 percent on month in June, coming in at 960.3 billion yen. That blew away forecasts for a decline of 1.0 percent following the 7.8 decline in May.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 106 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed higher on Tuesday after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer offered a temporary reprieve from concerns about the U.S.-China trade war by announcing that a 10 percent tariff set to take effect on September 1st should be delayed until December 15th for certain products. Additionally, the USTR announced certain unidentified products will be removed from the tariff list entirely based on health, safety, national security and other factors.
The Dow jumped 372.54 points or 1.4 percent to 26,279.91, the Nasdaq soared 152.95 points or 2 percent to 8,016.36 and the S&P 500 surged up 43.23 points or 1.5 percent to 2,926.32.
The major European markets showed a significant rebound after coming under pressure earlier on Tuesday. While the French CAC 40 Index surged up by 1 percent, the German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.
Crude oil prices shook off early weakness and moved sharply higher on Tuesday after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced a delay in imposing new tariffs on certain Chinese products. WTI crude for September soared $2.17 or 4 percent to $57.10 a barrel.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2019 AFX News
