Japan Shares May Extend Tuesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 1,120 points or 2.8 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 43,550-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh on the markets. The European markets were up and the Asian bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financials, gains from the automobile producers and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index slumped 168.02 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 43,546.29 after trading between 43,411.97 and 43,876.42.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 1.44 percent, while Mazda Motor perked 0.07 percent, Toyota Motor improved 0.76 percent, Honda Motor rose 0.36 percent, Softbank Group plunged 4.01 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial stumbled 2.64 percent, Mizuho Financial retreated 1.61 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial slumped 1.22 percent, Mitsubishi Electric rallied 2.47 percent, Sony Group fell 0.36 percent, Panasonic Holdings eased 0.16 percent and Hitachi was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and spent most of the day in the red, although the Dow peeked up above the line at the end.

The Dow rose 10.45 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 44,922.27, while the NASDAQ tumbled 314.82 points or 1.46 percent to end at 21,314.95 and the S&P 500 sank 37.78 points or 0.59 percent to close at 6,411.37.

The slump by the NASDAQ came amid weakness in the tech sector, with shares of Nvidia (NVDA) plunging by 3.5 percent following reports that the company is developing a new AI chip for China.

On the other hand, the Dow benefitted from a surge by shares of Home Depot (HD), as the home improvement retailer shot up 3.2 percent after the company maintained its full-year guidance despite missing on Q2 results.

Traders were also looking ahead to the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting later today and the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium that gets underway on Thursday. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at the symposium on Friday, with remarks potentially impacting the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil declined on Tuesday amid supply side concerns as OPEC continues to unwind 2.2 million barrels per day in voluntary cuts by its member nations. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.07 or 1.69 percent at $62.35 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will release June figures for core machinery orders and July data for imports, exports and trade balance later this morning. Machine orders are expected to slip 0.4 percent on month and rise 5.0 percent on year after falling 0.6 percent on month and gaining 4.4 percent on year in May.

Imports are expected to tumbled 10.4 percent on year after adding 0.2 percent in June. Exports are called lower by an annual 2.1 percent after slipping 0.5 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at 196.2 billion yen, up from 153.1 billion yen a month earlier.