Soft Start Seen For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market turned lower again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had plunged nearly 2,200 points or 4.2 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 50,275-point plateau and it may spin its wheels again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continuing concerns about an artificial intelligence bubble. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourse were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the automobile producers were up on bargain hunting.

For the day, the index slumped 607.31 points or 1.19 percent to finish at 50,276.37 after trading between 49,640.56 and 50,642.79. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 4.33 percent, while Mazda Motor skyrocketed 8.17 percent, Toyota Motor and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial both shed 0.67 percent, Honda Motor jumped 1.80 percent, Softbank Group plummeted 6.87 percent, Mizuho Financial retreated 1.62 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial dropped 0.98 percent, Mitsubishi Electric tumbled 1.76 percent, Sony Group tanked 2.09 percent, Panasonic Holdings rose 0.32 percent and Hitachi slumped 1.21 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cloudy as the major averages spent most of Friday under water before a late push salvaged a mixed close.

The Dow added 74.80 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 46,987.10, while the NASDAQ sank 49.46 points or 0.21 percent to close at 23,004.54 and the S&P 500 rose 8.48 points or 0.13 percent to end at 6,728.80.

For the week, the tech-heavy NASDAQ plunged 3.0 percent, while the S&P 500 tumbled 1.7 percent and the Dow slumped 1.2 percent.

The recovery in afternoon trading reflected optimism about an end to the prolonged government shutdown following an offer from top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer - although Republicans turned the offer down later in the day.

Negative sentiment was also generated by a report from the University of Michigan showing consumer sentiment in the U.S. has deteriorated much more than anticipated in November; consumers are now expressing worries about potential negative economic consequences of the shutdown as the stalemate exceeds one month.

Crude oil prices saw modest gains on Friday as a weakening dollar was offset by reports of oversupply and low demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.38 or 0.64 percent at $59.81 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will release preliminary September figures for its leading and coincident indexes later today; in August, the leading index was up 1.3 percent on month and the coincident fell 1.3 percent.