Japan Stock Market May Extend Friday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market on Friday halted the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 1,100 points or 2.7 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 42,630-point plateau and it's expected to see additional support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The Nikkei finished barely higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index perked 23.09 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 42,633.29 after trading between 42,331.39 and 42,720.57.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor dropped 0.90 percent, while Mazda Motor accelerated 3.23 percent, Toyota Motor strengthened 1.34 percent, Honda Motor added 0.57 percent, Softbank Group jumped 1.99 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial rallied 1.62 percent, Mizuho Financial advanced 0.92 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial climbed 1.08 percent, Mitsubishi Electric gained 0.63 percent, Sony Group soared 2.10 percent, Panasonic Holdings improved 1.35 percent and Hitachi rose 0.44 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and continued to trend upward as the day continued, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 846.24 points or 1.89 percent to finish at 45,631.74, while the NASDAQ rallied 396.23 points or 1.88 percent to end at 21,496.54 and the S&P 500 jumped 96.74 points or 1.52 percent to close at 6,466.91.

For the week, the Dow spiked 1.5 percent, the NASDAQ slipped 0.6 percent and the S&P rose 0.3 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came in reaction to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech before the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

While Powell touched only briefly on the outlook for monetary policy, his remarks have increased investor confidence that the Fed will lower interest rates next month.

Following Powell's remarks, CME Group's FedWatch Tool jumped to indicate an 83.1 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next month, up from 75.0 percent a day earlier.

Crude oil prices rose modestly on Friday as expectations of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal waned with no progress. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.13 pr 0.20 percent at $63.65 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will see June results for its leading and coincident indexes later today. The leading index is expected to climb 1.3 percent on month, up from 0.6 percent in May. The coincident is seen higher by 0.8 percent following the flat reading a month earlier.