Japan Shares May Stop The Bleeding On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has finished lower in five straight sessions, stumbling more than 1,630 points or 4.3 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now rests just beneath the 38,450-point plateau although it may find traction on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive as U.S. inflation data eased concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets finished solidly higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Nikkei finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the automobile companies, gains from the financials and a mixed picture from the technology shares.

For the day, the index dipped 29.72 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 38,444.58 after trading between 38,316.01 and 38,774.99.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor eased 0.11 percent, while Mazda Motor dipped 0.05 percent, Toyota Motor fell 0.22 percent, Honda Motor shed 0.44 percent, Softbank Group slid 0.07 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial jumped 1.77 percent, Mizuho Financial rallied 3.54 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial spiked 2.40 percent, Mitsubishi Electric lost 0.47 percent, Sony Group strengthened 1.62 percent, Panasonic Holdings added 0.61 percent and Hitachi sank 0.37 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened firmly higher and stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow surged 703.27 points or 1.65 percent to finish at 43,221.55, while the NASDAQ rallied 466.84 points or 2.45 percent to close at 19,511.23 and the S&P 500 jumped 107.00 points or 1.83 percent to end at 5,949.91.

The rally on Wall Street was a positive reaction to the Labor Department's closely watched report on consumer price inflation in December. While the report showed consumer prices rose slightly more than expected in December, the annual rate of core consumer price growth unexpectedly slowed.

Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to upbeat earnings news from financial giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citigroup (C).

Oil prices spiked Wednesday as crude inventories in the U.S. dropped last week, while possible supply disruptions due to new sanctions against Russia also supported prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February rose $2.54 or 3.3 percent at $80.04 a barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will provide December data for producer prices later this morning, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.4 percent on month and 3.8 percent on year. That's up from 0.3 percent on month and 3.7 percent on year in November.