Japan Stock Market May Extend Friday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after ending the four-day losing streak in which it had given up almost 1,175 points or 2.8 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just shy of the 40,800-point plateau and it may open to the downside again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on new U.S. tariffs, plus an extremely weak American jobs report. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index slumped 270.20 points or 0.66 percent to finish at 40,799.60 after trading between 40,588.17 and 41,064.73.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 3.08 percent, while Mazda Motor climbed 1.22 percent, Toyota Motor advanced 1.04 percent, Honda Motor added 0.51 percent, Softbank Group tumbled 1.91 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial collected 0.78 percent, Mizuho Financial sank 0.67 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial dropped 0.83 percent, Mitsubishi Electric surged 4.61 percent, Sony Group eased 0.05 percent, Panasonic Holdings rallied 2.40 percent and Hitachi plummeted 8.81 percent,

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 542.42 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 43,588.58, while the NASDAQ tanked 472.27 points or 2.24 percent to close at 20,650.13 and the S&P 500 dropped 101.38 points or 1.60 percent to end at 6,238.01.

For the week, the Dow plummeted 2.9 percent, while the S&P sank 2.4 percent and the NASDAQ was down 2.2 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the economic impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs, as the White House announced new tariff rates on dozens of countries.

The new tariffs range from just 10 percent to as high as 41 percent, and the White House said a 40 percent levy will be imposed on goods that have been transshipped to evade applicable duties.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to the closely watched Labor Department report showing much weaker than expected job growth in the month of July.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on demand concerns for potentially reduced consumption amid new tariffs from the U.S. government. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.92 or 2.77 percent at $67.34 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will on Monday release July figures for monetary base later this morning; in June, the base was down 3.3 percent on year.