FX.co ★ Japanese Market Slightly Lower

Building upon the downward trend from the previous session, the Japanese stock market saw minor losses on Thursday, potentially due to mixed signals from Wall Street. The Nikkei 225 remains below the 38,300 mark, with significant losses stemming from heavy share indexes and stocks in the financial sector.

The acclaimed Nikkei 225 Index rose slightly by 12.34 points, a change of 0.03 percent, to 38,261.71, brushing off an earlier low of 37,958.19. Wednesday's closing saw a sharp dip in Japanese shares.

Influential market participants, SoftBank Group and Uniqlo's parent company, Fast Retailing, experienced a near 1 percent loss and no change respectively. Auto manufacturers Toyota and Honda also experienced negligible losses of 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent.

In the tech sector, Advantest dropped almost 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings saw marginal increases, ranging from 0.2 to 0.4 percent.

Financial firms such as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mizuho Financial, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial encountered losses close to 2 percent and 1 percent respectively. Export giants such as Canon, Mitsubishi Electric, and Sony also underwent roughly 1 percent losses, while Panasonic saw gains of 0.3 percent.

Among the market's standout winners, Kansai Electric Power and Sumitomo saw near 5 percent and 4 percent gains respectively. Additionally, Mitsubishi and Daiichi Sankyo both experienced around 3 percent growth.

On the flip side, Resona Holdings, and Shiseido experienced close to a 3 percent decline, while Mazda Motor and TDK dropped more than 3 percent. Notably, Sumitomo Pharma plummeted by more than 7 percent.

In recent economic news, the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Board expressed confidence they are nearing their 2 percent inflation target, as revealed in the minutes from their March 18-19 meeting. In this meeting, the Bank of Japan lifted its interest rates for the first time in nearly 20 years, signaling an end to negative rates following signs of strengthened inflation.

In other financial updates, the Bank of Japan reported a 2.1 percent increase in Japan's monetary base in April to 689.896 trillion yen, up from 1.6 percent in March. The adjusted monetary base saw a more dramatic increase, spiking 11.4 percent year-on-year.

In currency trends, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 156 yen-range this past Thursday.

On Wall Street, volatile stock behaviour followed the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement Wednesday afternoon. The major indices initially surged post-announcement but retracted as the day closed out.

Most of the significant European markets were closed for the day, with U.K. stocks experiencing a slight drop. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index ended the day with a 0.3 percent decrease.

Crude oil prices hit a seven-week low on Wednesday, following the revelation of an unexpected increase in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June dropped by $2.93, settling at $79.00 a barrel, a low not seen since March 12.