TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Wednesday, tracking the negative lead overnight from Wall Street and as the safe-haven yen rose amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 264.58 points or 1.32 percent to 19,731.43, off a low of 19,715.56 earlier.
Among the major exporters, Sony, Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are losing more than 1 percent each, while Canon is down 0.5 percent.
Among automakers, Toyota is declining almost 2 percent and Honda is down more than 1 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are both down more than 1 percent each.
The Nikkei business daily reported that Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Yahoo Japan will form a $300 million joint venture to process data at the Japanese bank to improve customer services. Shares of Yahoo Japan are down 0.6 percent.
The Nikkei also reported that Toshiba's auditor plans to grant a qualified approval of the conglomerate's earnings report for the year ended in March. Shares of Toshiba are rising almost 5 percent.
In the oil space, Inpex is lower by almost 2 percent and Japan Petroleum Exploration is down more than 1 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Yamaha Motor is rising more than 5 percent, while Mitsubishi Materials, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Ebara Corp. are all gaining more than 4 percent each.
On the flip side, Sumco Corp. and Yokogawa Electric are losing more than 10 percent each, while Sumitomo Osaka Cement is down more than 8 percent.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan said that the M2 money stock in Japan was up 4.0 percent on year in July, coming in at 978.5 trillion yen. That exceeded expectations for 3.9 percent, which would have been unchanged from the June reading. Japan will also see machine tool orders for July today.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 109 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed modestly lower on Tuesday after remarks by President Donald Trump added to concerns about rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Trump told reporters further threats from North Korea would be 'met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.'
The Dow edged down 33.08 points or 0.2 percent to 22,085.34, the Nasdaq dipped 13.31 points or 0.2 percent to 6,370.46 and the S&P 500 slipped 5.99 points or 0.2 percent to 2,474.92.
The major European markets closed modestly higher on Tuesday. While the German DAX Index rose by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures nudged lower Tuesday as OPEC gathered to discuss its supply quota plan. WTI crude for September delivery dropped $0.22 or 0.5 percent to close at $49.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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