Japan Bourse Due For Consolidation On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, advancing more than 1,700 points or 3.4 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 51,000-point plateau although investors figure to lock in gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amidst a lack of catalysts, although oil and technology stocks may provide support. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourse were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished sharply higher on Thursday with gains across the board, especially among the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index surged 1,163.74 points or 2.33 percent to finish at the daily high of 51,028.42 after trading as low as 49,910.06. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 4.25 percent, while Mazda Motor spiked 3.39 percent, Toyota Motor vaulted 3.26 percent, Honda Motor expanded 2.93 percent, Softbank Group skyrocketed 9.18 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial jumped 1.82 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 2.13 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial strengthened 1.72 percent, Mitsubishi Electric soared 3.71 percent, Sony Group added 0.68 percent, Panasonic Holdings rose 0.27 percent and Hitachi rallied 1.64 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher but spent the day bouncing back and forth across the changed line, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 31.96 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 47,850.94, while the NASDAQ added 51.04 points or 0.22 percent to close at 23,505.14 and the S&P 500 rose 7.40 points or 0.11 percent to end at 6,857.12.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders took a step back to assess the near-term outlook for the markets following the volatility earlier in the week.

Traders largely shrugged off a report from the Labor Department showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to a three-year low last week.

While the data partly offset recent optimism about the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates next week, the central bank is still widely expected to lower rates by another quarter point.

Crude oil prices advanced on Thursday as expectations of an end to the Russia-Ukraine war dimmed. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.70 or 1.19 percent at $59.65 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will release October figures for household spending later this morning. Spending is expected to rise 0.7 percent on month and 1.1 percent on year after slipping 0.7 percent on month and gaining 1.8 percent on year in September.

Japan also will see preliminary October results for its leading and coincident indexes; in September, they were up 1.6 percent and 1.8 percent on month, respectively.