Japan Stock Market May Extend Wednesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market on Wednesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 750 points or 2 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 27,720-point plateau and it may take further damage on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft amid continued uncertainty over U.S. trade policies. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The Nikkei finished barely lower on Wednesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index dipped 1.71 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 37,722.40 after trading between 37,709.71 and 38,178.73.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor fell 0.33 percent, while Mazda Motor accelerated 1.32 percent, Toyota Motor slipped 0.32 percent, Honda Motor strengthened 1.27 percent, Softbank Group perked 0.12 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial sank 0.71 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.56 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rose 0.14 percent, Mitsubishi Electric plummeted 5.35 percent, Sony Group added 0.32 percent, Panasonic Holdings jumped 1.77 percent and Hitachi advanced 0.99 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages shook off a mildly positive open and headed south through the balance of the session, ending at daily lows.

The Dow dropped 244.95 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 42,098.70, while the NASDAQ sank 98.23 points or 0.51 percent to close at 19,100.94 and the S&P 500 slumped 32.99 points or 0.56 percent to end at 5,888.55.

The choppy trading came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news from AI darling and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) after Wednesday's close.

The earnings news after the bell showed that Nvidia beat the street on earnings and revenue, possibly lending support to technology shares going forward.

Lingering uncertainty about President Donald Trump's trade policies also kept some traders on the sidelines following recent volatility.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Wednesday on news that OPEC will establish output quotas for 2027. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery climbed $0.87 or 1.43 percent to $61.76 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will see May results for its household confidence index later today, with forecasts suggesting a score of 31.8 - up from 31.2 in April.