TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese market is trading notably higher on Thursday, snapping a four-session losing streak, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 41,950 level, with gains in financial and technology stocks and a mixed performance in most other sectors.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 286.39 points or 0.70 percent to 40,941.09, after touching a high of 40,957.67 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining 3.5 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 1 percent and Honda is edging down 0.5 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is gaining more than 1 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing more than 3 percent.
In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining more than 1 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.5 percent each.
Among the major exporters, Sony is gaining almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is adding 1.5 percent, while Canon is edging down 0.2 percent and Panasonic is losing more than 2 percent.
Among other major gainers, Kyocera is soaring almost 9 percent, Astellas Pharma is jumping more than 7 percent and Fujikura is surging almost 7 percent, while Furukawa Electric and Yamato Holdings are surging more than 6 percent each. Disco is gaining more than 5 percent, Murata Manufacturing is advancing almost 5 percent and Nippon Electric Glass is adding almost 4 percent, while Sumco, Nissan Motor and Taiyo Yuden are up more than 3 percent each. Lasertec and Socionext are advancing almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Sumitomo Metal Mining is losing almost 3 percent.
In economic news, industrial production in Japan was up a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent on month in June, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Thursday. That beat forecasts for a decline of 0.7 percent following the 0.1 percent contraction in May. On a yearly basis, industrial production was up 4.0 percent. According to the METI's forecast for industrial production, output is expected to rise 1.8 percent in July and 0.8 percent in August.
The METI also said The value of retail sales in Japan was up 2.0 percent on year in June, coming in at 12.966 trillion yen. That beat forecasts for an increase of 1.8 percent following the downwardly revised 1.9 percent gain in May (originally 2.2 percent). For the second quarter of 2025, retail sales rose an annual 2.4 percent to 38.679 trillion yen.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Thursday and then announce its decision on interest rates. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at 0.50 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 149 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday following the modest pullback seen in the previous session. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing narrowly mixed.
While the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 31.38 points or 0.2 percent to 21,129.67, the S&P 500 edged down 7.96 points or 0.1 percent to 6,362.90 and the Dow fell 171.71 points or 0.4 percent to 44,4conomic n61.28.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved modestly higher on the day. While the German DAX Index rose by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just above the unchanged line.
Crude oil prices inched higher on Wednesday on hopes the U.S. can avoid a trade war, while the grace period was cut for Russia to avoid sanctions on its energy trades from 50 to 10 days. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery rose $0.82 or 1.18 percent at $70.02 per barrel.
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