TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market declined on Tuesday following the modest losses overnight on Wall Street amid lingering uncertainty about the U.S. and China signing a phase one trade deal before the commencement of the next round of tariff hikes on December 15.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 38.57 points or 0.16 percent to 23,392.13, after touching a low of 23,336.93 earlier. Japanese shares rose for a third straight session on Monday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group Corp. is declining more than 1 percent and Fast Retailing is down 0.7 percent.
The major exporters are mixed on a slightly weaker yen. Sony is advancing more than 1 percent and Canon is adding 0.2 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is declining 0.7 percent and Panasonic is unchanged.
In the tech space, Advantest is unchanged, while Tokyo Electron is declining almost 1 percent. Among auto stocks, Honda Motor is rising 0.5 percent, while Toyota Motor is down 0.3 percent.
In the oil sector, Japan Petroleum is lower by 0.7 percent and Inpex is declining 0.5 percent after crude oil prices edged lower overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Nippon Suisan Kaisha and Nippon Sheet Glass are rising more than 2 percent each, while Casio Computer is higher by 2 percent.
On the flip side, Tokuyama Corp., Screen Holdings and Kansai Electric Power are all losing more than 2 percent each.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan said the M2 money stock in Japan was up 2.8 percent on year in November, coming in at 1,038.4 trillion yen. That's up from the downwardly revised 2.4 percent in October.
The M3 money stock rose an annual 2.3 percent, up from the downwardly revised 2.0 percent in the previous month.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 108 yen-range on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed lower on Monday as some traders looked to cash in on the recent strength in the markets. Lingering uncertainty about U.S.-China trade talks also weighed on the markets, as new 15 percent tariffs on $165 billion worth of Chinese imports are set to take effect this coming Sunday.
The Dow slid 105.46 points or 0.4 percent to 27,909.60, the Nasdaq fell 34.70 points or 0.4 percent to 8,621.83 and the S&P 500 dropped 9.95 points or 0.3 percent to 3,135.96.
The major European markets moved to the downside on Monday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices edged lower on Monday amid concerns over the outlook for energy demand after data showed another drop in Chinese exports and on uncertainty about the U.S. and China signing a phase one deal before the commencement of the next round of tariff hikes. WTI crude for January ended down $0.18, or about 0.3 percent, at $59.02 a barrel.
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