Japan Stock Market Due For Support On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, dropping more than 940 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 39,000-point plateau although it's likely to stop the bleeding on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat ahead of the FOMC's rate decision later today. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the automobile and technology companies, while the financial sector was mixed.

For the day, the index tumbled 548.93 points or 1.39 percent to finish t 39,016.87 after trading between 38,886.05 and 39,448.55.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor stumbled 1.56 percent, while Mazda Motor retreated 1.66 percent, Toyota Motor skidded 1.11 percent, Honda Motor fell 0.33 percent, Softbank Group plummeted 5.22 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial collected 2.52 percent, Mizuho Financial accelerated 2.79 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial spiked 2.18 percent, Mitsubishi Electric tumbled 1.80 percent, Sony Group rallied 2.94 percent, Panasonic Holdings shed 0.66 percent and Hitachi plunged 6.39 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened slightly lower on Tuesday but quickly bounced higher and spent the balance of the session firmly in the green.

The Dow climbed 136.77 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 44,850.35, while the NASDAQ rallied 391.75 points or 2.03 percent to close at 19,733.59 and the S&P 500 gained 55.42 points or 0.92 percent to end at 6,067.70.

The strength on Wall Street came as some traders looked to pick up technology stocks at somewhat reduced levels following the sell-off seen in the sector a day earlier.

Buying interest was subdued, however, as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today. The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will pay watch for the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates.

In economic news, the Commerce Department noted a steep drop by new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods in December. Also, the Conference Board said its U.S. consumer confidence index declined from a notably upwardly revised level in January.

Oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday amid disruptions to supply from Libya as protesters prevented tankers from loading at the country's two major ports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February closed higher by $0.60 or about 0.82 percent at $73.77 a barrel.

Closer to home, the Bank of Japan will release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on December 18 and 19. At the policy board meeting, members voted 8-1 to maintain the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0.25 percent.