Continued Consolidation Called For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Thursday holiday for the Vernal Equinox, the Japanese stock market had ended the three-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 1,050 points or 2.8 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 37,750-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on lingering concerns over tariffs and the health of the world economy. The European and U.S. markets both were slightly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index slumped 93.54 points or 0.25 percent to finish at the daily low of 37,751.88 after moving as high as 38,128.58.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor tanked 2.41 percent, while Mazda Motor climbed 1.16 percent, Toyota Motor accelerated 1.87 percent, Honda Motor dipped 0.16 percent, Softbank Group tumbled 1.97 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial eased 0.02 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.60 percent, Mitsubishi Electric advanced 0.83 percent, Sony Group improved 0.85 percent, Panasonic Holdings perked 0.19 percent, Hitachi slumped 1.71 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages were unable to hold early gains on Thursday, slipping slightly under water by the close.

The Dow shed 11.31 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 41,953.32m while the NASDAQ lost 59.16 points or 0.33 percent to close at 17,691.16 and the S&P 500 fell 12.40 points or 0.22 percent to end at 5,662.89.

The modestly lower close on Wall Street came amid lingering concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged, but forecasts suggest officials still expect to resume cutting rates later this year.

However, the Fed officials also lowered their projections for GDP growth in 2025 to 1.7 percent from 2.1 percent and raised their forecasts for consumer price growth this year to 2.7 percent from 2.5 percent.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday after the U.S. slapped fresh sanctions on Iran. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $1.10 or about 1.6 percent at $68.26 a barrel on the expiration day.

Closer to home, Japan will on Friday release February data for consumer prices later this morning. In January, overall inflation was up 0.5 percent on month and 4.0 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 3.2 percent.