The Japanese stock market is trading notably lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 61,000 mark, with weakness in index heavyweights, automakers and technology stocks, while exporters and financial stocks were mixed.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 412.98 points or 0.67 percent at 60,996.31, after hitting a low of 60,809.80 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Friday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is tumbling almost 6 percent and Toyota is declining almost 4 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is declining more than 1 percent, Screen Holdings slipping more than 3 percent and Tokyo Electron are edging down 0.5 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is gaining almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is advancing almost 3 percent, while Mizuho Financial is tumbling almost 7 percent.bThe major exporters are mostly higher. Mitsubishi Electric is losing almost 2 percent, while Panasonic is gaining more than 1 percent, Sony is adding almost 1 percent and Canon is edging up 0.4 percent.
Among the other major losers, Marui Group is tumbling almost 10 percent, while Nikon and Subaru are sliding more than 7 percent each. Eisai is tumbling almost 7 percent, while Sumitomo Pharma and Tokuyama are slipping almost 6 percent each. JGC Holdings, Toray Industries, Mitsubishi Materials and Toyota Tsusho are declining almost 5 percent each, while Yamaha Motor, Taisei and Shimizu are losing more than 4 percent each.
Conversely, Recruit Holdings is skyrocketing more than 18 percent, Terumo is jumping more than 16 percent, Haseko is soaring almost 7 percent and Trend Micro is surging more than 5 percent, while Mitsui Kinzoku, Nissan Chemical and Nomura Research Institute are advancing more than 4 percent each. Japan Post Holdings, Nisshin Seifun Group, BayCurrent, NEC and Furukawa Electric are gaining more than 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 158 yen-range on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks pulled back sharply over the course of the trading day on Friday following the strength seen in the previous session. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside on the day.
The major averages finished the day off their lows of the session but still firmly negative. The Dow slumped 537.29 points or 1.1 percent to 49,526.17, the Nasdaq plunged 410.08 points or 1.5 percent to 26,225.14 and the S&P 500 tumbled 92.74 points or 1.2 percent to 7,408.50.
The major European markets also showed significant moves to the downside. While the German DAX Index dove by 2.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index shed 1.7 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices surged on Friday after the U.S.-China summit ended with no announcement of Chinese intervention to end the gulf war, leaving the Strait of Hormuz blockade in place. West Texas Intermediate crude for June was up $4.18 or 4.13 percent at $105.35 per barrel.
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Market Analysis
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.