Japan Shares May Head South Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Friday snapped the two-day slide in which it had dropped almost 550 points or 1.5 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 37,160-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on renewed trade and tariff concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The Nikkei finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the technology stocks and financial shares, while the automobile producers were mixed.

For the day, the index added 174.60 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 37,160.47 after trading between 37,111.63 and 37,373.91.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor eased 0.06 percent, while Mazda Motor perked 0.15 percent, Toyota Motor was up 0.13 percent, Honda Motor rose 0.25 percent, Softbank Group collected 0.03 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial eased 0.13 percent, Mizuho Financial added 0.67 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial climbed 1.03 percent, Mitsubishi Electric strengthened 1.13 percent, Sony Group advanced 0.79 percent, Panasonic Holdings surged 3.50 percent and Hitachi rallied 1.82 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 256.02 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 41,603.07, while the NASDAQ tumbled 188.53 points or 1.00 percent to close at 18,737.21 and the S&P 500 sank 39.19 points or 0.67 percent to end at 5,802.82.

For the week, the S&P 500 gave up 2.6 percent, while the NASDAQ and the Dow both plunged 2.5 percent.

The initial slump on Wall Street came after President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union beginning June 1, sparking renewed trade concerns.

On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department said new home sales in the U.S. spiked in April compared to a significantly downwardly revised level in March.

Crude oil prices ticked higher on Friday but still fell for the week amid reports of another production increase by OPEC for July. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery climbed $0.34 or 0.6 percent to $61.54 a barrel. For the week, crude fell 1.5 percent.

Closer to home, Japan will see March results for its leading and coincident indexes later today. The leading index is expected to slip 0.5 percent on month after easing 0.3 percent in February, while the coincident is expected to slide 1.3 percent after rising 0.9 percent a month earlier.