Japan Market Expected To Halt Its Slide On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, shedding almost 240 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 37,600-point plateau although it's due for support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with support expected from the technology stocks and oil companies. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were sharply higher and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the technology stocks and mixed performances from the financial shares and automobile producers.

For the day, the index slumped 68.57 points or 0.18 percent to finish at the daily low of 37,608.49 after peaking at 37,841.68.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor stumbled 2.03 percent, while Mazda Motor jumped 1.82 percent, Toyota Motor added 0.65 percent, Honda Motor dipped 0.10 percent, Softbank Group rallied 3.00 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial tumbled 2.00 percent, Mizuho Financial retreated 1.99 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial surrendered 2.23 percent, Mitsubishi Electric fell 0.40 percent, Sony Group shed 0.48 percent, Panasonic Holdings dropped 0.96 percent and Hitachi lost 0.66 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened higher on Monday and remained in the green throughout the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 597.97 points or 1.42 percent to finish at 42,583.32, while the NASDAQ rallied 404.54 points or 2.27 percent to close at 18,188.59 and the S&P 500 gained 100.01 points or 1.76 percent to end at 5,767.57.

The support on Wall Street came on reports that President Donald Trump may hold back some of the reciprocal tariffs set to take effect on April 2.

Semiconductor and networking stocks had a very good outing. Shares from steel, banking, retail and airline sectors too closed mostly higher.

Oil prices climbed higher on Monday after Trump announced a 25 percent secondary tariff on countries purchasing oil or gas from Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May settled higher by $0.83 or 1.22 percent at $69.11 a barrel.

Closer to home, the Bank of Japan will release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on January 23-24 later this morning. At the meeting, the central bank raised its short-term interest rate to the highest in 17 years, aiming for a price stability target of 2.0 percent amidst rising wages. BoJ policy board members raised the overnight call rate to around 0.5 percent from 0.25 percent - marking the highest since the global financial crisis in 2008.