TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is declining on Tuesday and the safe-haven yen strengthened despite the modest gains overnight on Wall Street, as investors turned cautious amid uncertainty over a U.S.-China trade deal. CNBC's Beijing Bureau Chief Eunice Yoon reported that Chinese officials have grown pessimistic about the chances for a trade deal.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 105.44 points or 0.45 percent to 23,311.32, after touching a low of 23,244.93 earlier. Japanese shares closed higher on Monday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is lower by almost 2 percent and Fast Retailing is declining more than 1 percent.
The major exporters are mostly lower on a stronger yen. Sony is declining more than 1 percent, while Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are down 0.3 percent each. Panasonic is rising 0.3 percent.
In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is losing almost 1 percent and Advantest is down 0.2 percent. Among auto stocks, Toyota Motor is down almost 1 percent and Honda Motor is lower by 1 percent.
In the oil sector, Inpex is declining more than 1 percent and Japan Petroleum is down 0.3 percent after crude oil prices declined overnight.
Among the major gainers, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Kyowa Kirin are rising more than 4 percent each.
On the flip side, Z Holdings is losing more than 7 percent, Taiyo Yuden is lower by more than 4 percent and Fujikura is declining almost 4 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid 108 yen-range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed modestly higher on Monday after initially moving to the downside following a tweet from CNBC's Beijing Bureau Chief Eunice Yoon that suggested Chinese officials have grown pessimistic about the chances for a trade deal. However, traders have recently shown a predilection for taking upbeat reports about the trade talks at face value while shrugging off the negative news.
The Dow added 31.26 points or 0.11 percent to 28,036.15, while the Nasdaq gained 9.11 points or 0.11 percent to 8,549.94 and the S&P 500 rose 1.55 points or 0.05 percent to 3,122.01.
The major European markets ended mostly lower on Monday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index dipped by 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Monday due to excess supply in the market and on uncertainty over a potential trade deal between the U.S. and China. WTI crude for December delivery slumped $0.67 or about 1.2 percent to $57.05 a barrel.
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