TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is trading slightly lower on Wednesday, reversing some of the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 44,850 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks partially offset by gains in technology stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 60.63 or 0.14 percent at 44,841.64, after hitting a low of 44,612.07 earlier. Japanese stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is down more than 1 percent, while Toyota is edging up 0.2 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is edging up 0.3 percent, Tokyo Electron is surging almost 5 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 1 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging up 0.2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is losing more than 1 percent.
Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is losing more than 1 percent and Panasonic is edging down 0.1 percent, while Sony is edging up 0.4 percent. Canon is flat.
Among other major losers, Mitsui Mining & Smelting is losing almost 4 percent, while MS&AD Insurance, Kansai Electric Power and Tokyo Electric Power are declining more than 3 percent each. Otsuka Holdings, T&D Holdings, Sumitomo Pharma and Dai-ichi Life Holdings are down almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Disco is gaining almost 3 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-146 yen-range on Wednesday.
On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after ending the previous session mostly higher. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs in early trading but spent the rest of the day lingering near the unchanged line.
The major averages eventually ended the day modestly lower. The Dow dipped 125.55 points or 0.3 percent to 45,757.90, the Nasdaq slipped 14.79 points or 0.1 percent to 22,333.96 and the S&P 500 edged down 8.52 points or 0.1 percent to 6,606.76.
The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index is tumbled 1.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.0 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.9 percent.
Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Tuesday amid the intensifying Russia-Ukraine war and ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later today. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $1.22 or 1.93 percent at $64.52 per barrel.
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