Japan Stock Market May Stop The Bleeding On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, tumbling almost 780 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just shy of the 40,300-point plateau although it's due for support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on bargain hunting and optimism for an interest rate cut. The European and U.S. markets were sharply higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Monday with damage across the board, especially among the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index plunged 508.90 points or 1.25 percent to finish at 40,290.70 after trading between 39,850.52 and 40,332.25.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor retreated 1.39 percent, while Mazda Motor fell 0.41 percent, Toyota Motor tumbled 1.82 percent, Honda Motor declined 1.74 percent, Softbank Group eased 0.04 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial tanked 3.76 percent, Mizuho Financial stumbled 3.46 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial slumped 2.85 percent, Mitsubishi Electric contracted 1.46 percent, Sony Group surrendered 1.71 percent, Panasonic Holdings dropped 1.39 percent and Hitachi plunged 3.22 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is strong as the major averages opened solidly higher on Monday and closed in similar fashion, cutting into Friday's steep losses.

The Dow jumped 585.06 points or 1.34 percent to finish at 44,173.64, while the NASDAQ rallied 403.45 points or 1.95 percent to end at 21,053.58 and the S&P 500 gained 91.93 points or 1.47 percent to close at 6,329.94.

The rally on Wall Street came as traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the recent sell-off, which saw the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 pull back well off their record highs.

The steep drop last Friday came amid concerns about the economic impact of President Donald Trump's new tariffs, weaker than expected jobs data and a slump by shares of Amazon (AMZN).

Optimism the weak jobs data will lead the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates next month also contributed to the buying interest. According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, the chances of a quarter point rate cut in September have jumped to 91.9 percent from 63.1 percent a week ago.

Crude oil continued to decline on Monday thanks to oversupply concerns and fears of a tariff-induced slowdown by the global economy. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.06 or 1.57 percent at $66.27 per barrel.

Closer to home, the Bank of Japan will release the minutes from its June 16-17 monetary policy meeting later this morning. At the meeting, the B0J decided to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent and to reduce the pace of the amount of bond purchases.