Japan Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market on Tuesday wrote a finish to the five-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 2,300 points or 5.6 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 40,000-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with support from the oil companies offsetting weakness among the technology shares. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the technology stocks and automobile producers, while the financials were mixed.

For the day, the index slumped 501.06 points or 1.24 percent to finish at 39,986.33 after trading between 39,885.38 and 40,345.87.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor tanked 2.40 percent, while Mazda Motor tumbled 2.07 percent, Toyota Motor retreated 1.60 percent, Honda Motor perked 0.11 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Panasonic Holdings both sank 0.71 percent, Softbank Group rallied 2.62 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.65 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial eased 0.08 percent, Sony Group stumbled 2.41 percent and Hitachi fell 0.36 percent.

The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and finished in the same fashion.

The Dow rallied 400.17 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 44,494.94, while the NASDAQ tumbled 166.85 points or 0.82 percent to end at 20,202.89 and the S&P 500 slipped 6.94 points or 0.11 percent to close at 6,198.01.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came following the strong performance seen in recent sessions, which saw the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reach new record highs.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in Washington, D.C., where the Senate narrowly voted to approve President Donald Trump's massive tax cuts and spending bill.

On the U.S. economic front, the Institute for Supply Management noted a modest increase by its reading on U.S. manufacturing activity in June. Also, the Labor Department saw an unexpected increase by job openings in the U.S. in May.

Crude oil rose modestly on Tuesday as attention shifts to the OPEC cartel's supposed plans to increase output even as the Middle East remains uneventful. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery traded at $65.40 per barrel, up $0.29 or 0.45 percent.

Closer to home, Japan will see June figures for monetary base later this morning, with expectations for a fall of 3.5 percent on year following the 3.4 percent drop in May.