Swinging between gains and losses amid cautious moves by investors following a mixed lead from Wall Street, the Japanese stock market is trading marginally up on Wednesday. Profit taking at several counters following recent strong gains is also contributing to the sluggish movements in the market.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which declined to 9,442.6 after rising to 9,491, is currently trading at 9,472, up 9 points or 0.1 percent over its previous close.
Land transport and pulp & paper shares are trading higher. Chemicals and non-ferrous metal stocks are slightly weak, while machinery, insurance and marine transport stocks are trading mixed.
Kawasaki Kisen, Ebara Corp, Trend Micro, Japan Steel Work and Bridgestone Corp are trading lower by 2.2 to 2.8 percent.
Canon Inc., JFE Holdings, Advantest Corp, Komatsu, Yokohama Rubber, Mitsui Chemicals, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Sumitomo Electric, Sumco Corp and Sumitomo Chemicals are also trading notably lower.
Olumpus Corp. shares are up more than 5 percent with investors picking up the stocks on expectations of a new management for the company. Konami Corp is up 3.7 percent. Oji Paper, Oki Electric, Kansai Electric Power and Dainippon Sumito are gaining 2 to 3 percent.
Inpex Corp, Resona Holdings, All Nippon Airways, Tokyo Electric Power, Nippon Paper Group, Nippon Light Metal, East Japan Railway, Showa Denko KK and Mitsubishi Paper are also up with strong gains.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the upper 79 yen-level in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 79.84 to the U.S. dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea are trading notably lower. Shanghai and Taiwan are down marginally. Markets across the region ended on a mixed note on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed mixed on Tuesday. The Dow, which briefly ticked above the 13,000 mark, pared its losses subsequently and ended at 12,965.7 with a loss of 15.8 points. The Nasdaq edged lower by 3.2 points to 2,948.6 and the S&P 500 closed up nearly a point at 1,362.2.
Major European markets closed weak on Tuesday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index lost 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index ended lower by 0.2 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.
U.S. crude oil futures closed at a nine-month high on Tuesday, due largely to supply concerns, after Iran's move to cut off crude supplies to U.K. and France fueled fears of further disruptions from the middle east. Prices were also supported by positive market sentiments after a second bailout for Greece was cleared by European finance ministers.
Light sweet crude for March delivery gained $2.60 or 2.5 percent to settle at $105.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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Market Analysis
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.