Japan Bourse May Stop The Bleeding On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, tumbling almost 4,500 points or 13.3 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 31,130-point plateau and it's overdue for support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests bargain hunting after a couple of sessions of extremely heavy losses, The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed but the Asian markets are due to tick higher.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Monday with damage across the board thanks to tariff-driven fears, especially among the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index plunged 2,644.00 point or 7.83 percent to finish at 31,136.58 after trading between 30,792.74 and 33,158.87.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor plunged 9.34 percent, while Mazda Motor retreated 6.65 percent, Toyota Motor surrendered 5.86 percent, Honda Motor tumbled 4.14 percent, Softbank Group crashed 12.33 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial plummeted 10.37 percent, Mizuho Financial stumbled 10.74 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial declined 8.18 percent, Mitsubishi Electric cratered 9.81 percent, Sony Group dropped 10.04 percent, Panasonic Holdings slumped 8.65 percent and Hitachi sank 11.80 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Monday but then hugged the line on both sides before finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow tumbled 349.26 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 37,965.60, while the NASDAQ added 15.48 points or 0.10 percent to close at 15,603.26 and the S&P 500 fell 11.83 points or 0.23 percent to end at 5,062.25.

Stocks initially extended the sell-off seen over the two previous sessions amid ongoing concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's new tariffs and retaliatory moves by U.S. trade partners.

Adding to worries about a global trade war, Trump threatened to impose an additional 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless the country withdraws its new 34 percent tariff on U.S. goods.

Selling pressure waned shortly after the start of trading, however, leading some traders to pick up stocks at reduced levels after the major averages hit their lowest intraday levels in over a year.

Crude oil prices tumbled again on Monday, extending the nosedive seen over the two previous sessions over tariff concerns. After plummeting nearly $10 a barrel last Thursday and Friday, West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery dropped $1.29 or 2.1 percent to $60.70 a barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will release February figures for current account this morning, with forecasts expected to show a surplus of 3.80 trillion yen following the 258 billion yen shortfall in January.

Japan also will see March results for bank lending and for the Eco Watchers current index. Bank lending is seen steadily higher at 3.1 percent, while the eco survey is tipped to show a score of 45.1 - down from 45.6 a month earlier.