TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market, which swung between gains and losses, is modestly higher on Wednesday after opening lower following the following the negative cues overnight from Wall Street amid a stalemate in U.S. fiscal stimulus talks. Nevertheless, a weaker yen boosted shares of exporters.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 55.96 points or 0.25 percent to 22,806.20, after earlier falling to a low of 22,670.74. The Japanese market closed notably higher on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 3 percent despite reporting a nearly 12 percent increase in first-quarter profit, while Fast Retailing is advancing almost 1 percent.
The major exporters are mostly higher on a weaker yen. Panasonic is higher by more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is advancing almost 1 percent and Canon is adding 0.4 percent, while Sony is declining almost 1 percent.
In the tech space, Tokyo Electron is rising more than 1 percent and Advantest is adding 0.6 percent. In the financial sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining more than 2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is higher by 2 percent.
Among automakers, Honda Motor and Toyota are advancing more than 1 percent each.
In the oil sector, Inpex and Japan Petroleum are adding almost 1 percent each even as crude oil prices declined overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Ebara Corp. is climbing more than 10 percent, NSK Ltd. is rising more than 5 percent and Hitachi Construction Machinery is gaining almost 5 percent.
Conversely, Rakuten is tumbling almost 8 percent, Japan Steel Works is losing more than 4 percent and Eisai Co. is lower by almost 4 percent.
In economic news, Japan will provide July figures for machine tool orders today.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid 106 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed lower on Tuesday in a late-day sell-off as traders continued to cycle out of big-name tech stocks. Earlier, companies that have been hurt the most by the coronavirus pandemic benefited from news that Russia has approved a vaccine, with Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming it works 'quite effectively.' The speed of the development of the vaccine has raised questions about its safety, although the news still generated optimism the coronavirus pandemic can be contained in the relatively near future.
While the Nasdaq tumbled 185.53 points or 1.7 percent to 10,782.83, the Dow fell 104.53 points or 0.4 percent to 27,686.91 and the S&P 500 slid 26.78 points or 0.8 percent to 3,333.69.
The major European markets showed strong moves to the upside on Tuesday. While the French CAC 40 Index soared by 2.4 percent, the German DAX Index spiked by 2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index shot up by 1.7 percent.
Crude oil futures ended with a loss on Tuesday despite hitting a fresh 5-month high early in the session. WTI crude oil futures for September ended down $0.33 or about 0.8 percent at $41.61 a barrel.
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