Japan Shares Due For Consolidation On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, gathering almost 550 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 39,570-point plateau although the rally may stall on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over U.S. tariffs that were put in place over the weekend. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished slightly higher on Friday as the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers ended mostly in the green.

For the day, the index perked 58.52 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 39,572.49 after trading between 39,458.95 and 39,681.82.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 1.42 percent, while Mazda Motor added 0.52 percent, Toyota Motor improved 0.83 percent, Honda Motor perked 0.10 percent, Softbank Group rallied 1.20 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial collected 0.71 percent, Mizuho Financial rose 0.44 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial shed 0.41 percent, Mitsubishi Electric gained 0.57 percent, Sony Group fell 0.35 percent, Panasonic Holdings jumped 1.69 percent and Hitachi surged 4.64 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday and stayed that way for much of the day before a late slide saw them all finish in the red.

The Dow tumbled 337.44 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 44.544.66, while the NASDAQ slumped 54.26 points or 0.28 percent to close at 19,627.44 and the S&P 500 sank 30.64 points or 0.50 percent to end at 6,040.53. For the week, the Dow rose 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ lost 1.6 percent.

Stocks plummeted in afternoon trading after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs will be levied against major U.S. trading partners beginning the following day.

Leavitt said the Trump administration will be implementing 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10 percent tariff on China.

The news the tariffs will be implemented led to concerns about higher inflation keeping the Federal Reserve on hold for longer.

Oil futures settled lower Friday amid uncertainty about implementation of Trump's tariff plans on Canada and Mexico, while a stronger dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March fell $0.20 at $72.53 a barrel.