TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is trading modestly higher on Wednesday, snapping a four-session losing streak, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving above the 68,000 mark, with gains in exporters, automakers and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in financial stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 245.46 or 0.36 percent at 68,022.98, after touching a high of 68,148.98 earlier. Japanese stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.4 percent and Toyota is edging up 0.2 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.4 percent and Screen Holdings is adding almost 1 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are declining almost 2 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is losing more than 2 percent.
Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent, Canon is edging up 0.2 percent and Sony is adding more than 1 percent, while Panasonic is edging down 0.4 percent.
Among other major gainers, Taiyo Yuden is jumping more than 7 percent, while Mitsui Kinzoku and Fujikura are advancing almost 4 percent each. Resonac Holdings and Lasertec are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Socionext and Ibiden are adding almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Olympus is plunging almost 14 percent, Aeon is tumbling almost 8 percent, J. Front Retailing is slipping more than 4 percent and Terumo is declining more than 3 percent, while Resona Holdings, Mercari and Otsuka Holdings are losing almost 3 percent each.
In economic news, the M2 money stock in Japan was up 2.0 percent on year in September, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday - coming in at 1,295.6 trillion yen. That was unchanged from the August reading, although it missed expectations for an increase of 2.1 percent.
The M3 money stock was up an annual 1.2 percent at 1,638.3 trillion yen, while M1 slipped 0.2 percent to 1,081.9 trillion yen. L money was up 4.3 percent to 2,344.3 trillion yen, easing from 4.4 percent a month earlier.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 158 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, extending the lackluster performance seen in the previous session. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing modestly lower.
The Dow fell 180.45 points or 0.4 percent to 51,670.10, the Nasdaq dipped 41.52 points or 0.2 percent to 27,204.38 and the S&P 500 edged down 1.79 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 7,805.45.
The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index all edged down by 0.1 percent.
Crude oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday thanks to persistent tensions in the Middle East and supply disruption concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $1.08 or 1.15 percent to $94.82 per barrel.
Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2026 AFX News
