(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Thursday, giving up the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 staying above the 28,800 level, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders digested the U.S. Fed's monetary policy minutes, which indicated the US Fed is preparing to begin reducing the size of its balance sheet soon after raising interest rates.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 521.47 points or 1.78 percent to 28,810.69, after hitting a low of 28,806.10 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly higher on Wednesday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing 1.4 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is declining almost 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is adding more than 1 percent and Honda is edging up 0.3 percent. In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 2 percent, Screen Holdings is declining 3.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is down almost 2 percent.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is edging down 0.2 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are flat.
The major exporters are lower. Sony is declining 6.5 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 1 percent and Canon is edging down 0.4 percent. Panasonic is flat.
Among the other major losers, Terumo is losing more than 7 percent and M3 is slipping more than 6 percent, while Taiyo Yuden and Fuji Electric are declining more than 4 percent each. Keisei Electric Railway is down almost 4 percent.
Conversely, Shionogi & Co. is gaining almost 3 percent and Shinsei Bank is adding more than 2 percent. In economic news, the services sector in Japan continued to expand in December, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Thursday with a services PMI score of 52.1. That's down from 53.0 in November, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the composite index fell to 52.5 in December from 53.3 in November.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 115 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved notably lower during trading on Wednesday with traders reacting negatively to the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a particularly steep drop, extending the sharp pullback seen in the previous session.
After reaching a new record intraday high, the Dow turned lower following the release of the Fed minutes, slumping 392.54 points or 1.1 percent to 36,407.11. The Nasdaq plunged 522.54 points or 3.3 percent to 15,100.17 and the S&P 500 tumbled 92.96 points or 1.9 percent to 4,700.58.
Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices showed a notable advance Wednesday on optimism the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will not significantly impact global demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for February delivery jumped $0.86 or 1.1 percent to $77.85 a barrel.
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