Japan Stock Market May See Renewed Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Thursday ended the five-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 1,630 points or 4.3 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 38,570-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares expected to lead the markets lower. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished modestly higher on Thursday following a mixed performance from the financial and technology stocks, while the automobile companies remained under pressure.

For the day, the index added 128.02 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 38,572.60 after trading between 38,426.20 and 38,932.54.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor plunged 4.42 percent, while Mazda Motor retreated 1.45 percent, Toyota Motor tanked 2.21 percent, Honda Motor skidded 2.12 percent, Softbank Group spiked 2.23 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial eased 0.13 percent, Mizuho Financial fell 0.23 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rose 0.21 percent, Mitsubishi Electric perked 0.10 percent, Sony Group dipped 0.25 percent, Panasonic Holdings stumbled 2.06 percent and Hitachi dropped 0.99 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but quickly turned lower, spending most of the day in the red before finishing under water.

The Dow sank 68.42 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 43,153.13, while the NASDAQ slumped 172.95 points or 0.89 percent to close at 19,338.29 and the S&P 500 slipped 12.57 points or 0.21 percent to end at 5,937.34.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a step back to assess the near-term outlook for the markets following Wednesday's rally, which saw the major averages post their largest daily percentage gains in over two months.

Traders were also digesting a slew of U.S. economic data, including reports on weekly jobless claims, retail sales and import prices.

The data was largely in line with expectations and maintained optimism that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in the first half of this year.

Oil prices fell sharply on Thursday after Israel and Hamas agreed to implement a ceasefire agreement that was drafted and approved by the UN Security Council. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled lower by $1.36 or 1.7 percent at $78.68 a barrel.