Japanese Market A little better in miniature

(RTTNews) – Japan’s stock market traded marginally higher on Wednesday, following mixed cues from Wall Avenue overnight. The Nikkei 225 is moving below the 38,500 level as much as it actually is, with gains in gains steady across most sectors led by financials. Skill shares in particular were the easiest location to die out.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 17.28, or 0.04 percent, to 38,491.58, after earlier hitting a high of 38,774.99. Japanese stocks fell sharply on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Community is up 0.1 percent, Fast Retailing, operator of Uniqlo, is flat. Among automakers, Honda gains more than 1 percent, while Toyota gains 0.5 percent.

In the technology segment, Advantest shed nearly 3 percent, while Mask Holdings and Tokyo Electron fell 0.2 to 0.4 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining 1.5 percent, Mizuho Financial is advancing nearly 3 percent, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is on the side above 1 percent.

Among the most important exporters, Canon loses almost 1 percent and Sony each more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electrical and Panasonic register 0.2 to 0.5 percent more.

Among the various dominant losers, Lasertec and Furukawa Electrical shed nearly 3 percent each.

In contrast, Fanuc, Yaskawa Electrical and Toho each gain more than 5 percent, while Keyence is on the sidelines with nearly 4 percent and Dai-ichi Life advances above 3 percent.

According to financial records, Japan’s M2 money supply rose by 3.2 percent year-on-year in December, the Japanese financial institution confirmed on Wednesday, to 1,257.7 trillion yen. That beat expectations by 1.3 percent that it might have remained unchanged from the previous three months.

M3 money supply rose 0.8 percent year-on-year to ¥1,609.5 trillion, while M1 rose 1.3 percent to ¥1,096.5 trillion. The L money supply rose 3.7 percent to ¥2,195.6 trillion, following a 3.5 percent increase in the previous month.

In the foreign currency market, the US dollar is hovering above 157 yen on Wednesday.

On Wall Avenue, stocks showed no way through the trading session on Tuesday after failing to protect an early move higher. The dominant averages swung back and forth steadily through the flat line before narrowly mixing in the final close.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 43.71 points, or 0.2 percent, to 19,044.39, the S&P 500 rose 6.69 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,842.91 and the Dow climbed 221, 16 aspects or 0.5 percent to 42,518.28.

The dominant European markets also rose and turned out to be mixed. While Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3 percent, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.2 percent and Germany’s DAX rose 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices fell to 5-month highs on Tuesday as traders changed their address on the potential impact of Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for February delivery were down $1.32, or about 1.67 percent, at $77.50 a barrel.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Nasdaq, Inc.