Bargain Hunting Likely To Lift Japan Shares

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, surrendering more than 2,400 points or 6.5 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 35,610-point plateau although it figures to find support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, with bargain hunting likely on the menu after heavy selling in the previous sessions. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter 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 plummeted 1,502.77 points or 4.05 percent to finish at 35,617.56 after trading between 35,541.72 and 36,440.18.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor crashed 4.03 percent, while Mazda Motor stumbled 3.55 percent, Toyota Motor tanked 3.13 percent, Honda Motor plunged 3.07 percent, Softbank Group cratered 5.57 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial tumbled 4.62 percent, Mizuho Financial retreated 4.46 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial declined 3.58 percent, Mitsubishi Electric slumped 4.14 percent, Sony Group skidded 1.72 percent, Panasonic Holdings dropped 3.72 percent and Hitachi plummeted 6.13 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Monday but tracked higher throughout the session to finish mixed.

The Dow jumped 417.86 points or 1.00 percent to finish at 42,001.76, the NASDAQ dipped 23.70 points or 0.14 percent to close at 17,299.29 and the S&P 500 added 30.91 points or 0.55 percent to end at 5,611.85.

The early weakness on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trade partners, which are set to begin Wednesday

Traders worry Trump's tariffs and possible retaliatory actions by targeted countries will fuel inflation, keep interest rates elevated and drag down global economic growth.

On the U.S. economic front, MNI Indicators released a report showing an unexpected increase by its reading on Chicago-area business activity in the month of March.

Crude oil prices ticked higher on Monday on concerns that supply may not be able to keep up with demand. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery was up $0.17 or 0.25 percent to $69.53 per barrel.

Closer to home, the Bank of Japan will release Q1 results of its quarterly Tankan survey this morning. The large manufacturers index is expected to see a score of +12, down from +14 in the previous three month. The outlook is expected to slip to +9 from +13. Large all-industry capex was up 11.3 percent in the previous quarter.

Japan also will see February numbers for unemployment, with forecasts expecting the jobless rate (2.5 percent) and the jobs-to-applicant ratio (1.26) to remain unchanged.