TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market is significantly lower after opening with steep losses on Wednesday, paring the gains of the previous session, with the benchmark Nikkei index falling below the 28,400 level, as traders remain spooked by the recent acceleration in the new wave of coronavirus cases, particularly in Olympic city Tokyo. The cues overnight from Wall Street were mixed.
Tokyo reported 593 fresh coronavirus infections on Tuesday. The Japanese government is potentially keeping the quasi-state of emergency covering the Tokyo in place during the Summer Olympics.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 261.98 points or 0.91 percent to 28,381.23, after hitting a low of 28,161.75 earlier. Japanese stocks closed marginally higher on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.5 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.5 percent.
In the tech space, Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron are losing almost 1 percent each, while Advantest is down more than 1 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are losing almost 2 percent each.
Among the major exporters, Panasonic, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric are edging down 0.6 percent each, while Sony is losing almost 1 percent.
Among the other major losers, Mitsui E&S Holdings is losing more than 5 percent and T&D Holdings is down more than 4 percent, while Inpex, Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Credit Saison, Kikkoman, Amada and Shin-Etsu Chemical are lower by more than 3 percent each. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, IHI, Komatsu, Asahi Kasei, Idemitsu Kosan, Hino Motors, Chiba Bank and Sumitomo Heavy Industries are all declining almost 3 percent each.
Conversely, Yamato Holdings is gaining almost 4 percent, while CyberAgent and Z Holdings are adding almost 2 percent each.
In economic news, Japan will see preliminary May results for its leading and coincident economic indexes; in April, their scores were 103.8 and 95.3, respectively.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-110 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stock indexes turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday, following the strong upward move seen last week. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a new record closing high, the Dow and the S&P 500 gave back ground.
The Dow and the S&P 500 climbed well off their worst levels but still closed in the red. The Dow slid 208.98 points or 0.6 percent to 34,577.37 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.80 points or 0.2 percent to 4,343.54, but the Nasdaq rose 24.32 points or 0.2 percent to 14,663.64.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped by 1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both slid by 0.9 percent.
Crude oil futures settled sharply lower Tuesday as prices plunged after hitting a near seven-year high amid uncertainty about the major oil producers' production policy. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down by $1.79 or 2.4 percent at $73.37 a barrel.
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