The Japanese stock market is declining on Thursday after the Dow Jones' record closing high overnight and as a stronger yen weighed on exporters' shares.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is losing 64.69 points or 0.32 percent to 20,015.35, off a low of 20,002.69 earlier.
Among the major exporters, Sony is losing almost 1 percent and Canon is down 0.6 percent, while Panasonic is adding more than 1 percent.
Among automakers, Toyota is declining more than 1 percent and Honda is down almost 1 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining almost 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down 0.4 percent.
In the oil space, Inpex is edging down less than 0.1 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Furukawa Electric is gaining more than 13 percent, while Kikkoman Corp. and ANA Holdings are rising more than 4 percent each. On the flip side, Hitachi Zosen is losing almost 7 percent, Casio Computer is down 6 percent and Sky Perfect JSAT is lower by more than 5 percent.
On the economic front, the latest survey from Nikkei showed that the services sector in Japan continued to expand in July, albeit at a slower rate, with a PMI score of 52.0. That's down from 53.3 in June, although it remains well above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid 110 yen-range on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks hovered near the unchanged line on Wednesday before ending on opposite sides of it - although the Dow managed to close above 22,000 for the first time following tech giant Apple's upbeat quarterly results.
The Dow jumped 52.32 points or 0.24 percent to 22,016.24, while the Nasdaq eased 0.29 points or 0.01 percent to 6,362.65 and the S&P added 1.22 points or 0.05 percent to 2,477.57.
European shares fell on Wednesday as earnings proved to be a mixed bag, while the euro and pound surged against a broadly weaker dollar amid continued political uncertainty in the U.S.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent and the German DAX Index dropped by 0.6 percent.
Crude oil futures rose Wednesday, holding near $50 a barrel after a smaller-than-expected drop in U.S. oil inventories. WTI crude oil rose $0.43 or 0.9 percent to settle at $49.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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