Nikkei May Crack Resistance At 40,000 Points

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, gathering more than 1,500 points or 3.8 percent in that span. The Nikkei 225 now rests just beneath the 39,960-point plateau and it's expected to extend its gains again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on continued solid momentum ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The Nikkei finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile companies.

For the day, the index jumped 312.62 points or 0.79 percent to finish at 39,958.87 after trading between 39,677.22 and 40,036.07.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor advanced 0.93 percent, while Mazda Motor rallied 2.24 percent, Toyota Motor rose 0.33 percent, Honda Motor perked 0.27 percent, Softbank Group surged 5.13 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial was up 0.03 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.35 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial eased 0.11 percent, Mitsubishi Electric added 0.64 percent, Sony Group jumped 1.86 percent, Panasonic Holdings added 0.23 percent and Hitachi soared 2.05 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but climbed steadily as the day progressed, so they were all in the green by the session's end.

The Dow surged 408.34 points or 0.92 percent to finish at 44,565.07, while the NASDAQ added 44.34 points or 0.22 percent to close at 20,053.68 and the S&P 500 gained 32.34 points or 0.53 percent to end at 6,118.71.

The markets continued to benefit from recent upward momentum, which has help stocks largely offset the sell-off seen earlier this month.

Biotechnology stocks showed a strong move to the upside as the day progressed, driving the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 1.8 percent to its best closing level in almost four years.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing initial jobless claims saw further upside last week.

Oil prices fell on Thursday after data showed crude inventories in the U.S. fell less than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March closed down $0.82 or about 1.1 percent at $74.62 a barrel.

Closer to home, the Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting this morning and then announce its decision on interest rates; the BoJ is expected to raise its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent.

Japan also will see December data for consumer prices; in November, overall inflation was up 0.6 percent on month and 2.9 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 2.7 percent. Japan also will see January results for the services and manufacturing PMIs from Jibun Bank; in December, their scores were 50.9 and 49.6, respectively.