Japan Shares Expected To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Monday ended the four-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 1,160 points or 3 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 39,160-point plateau and it may see additional support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology stocks expected to lead the way higher. The European markets were flat and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei 225 finished sharply higher on Monday, led by gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index jumped 459.44 points or 1.19 percent to finish at 39,161.34 after trading between 38,847.13 and 39,210.17.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor rallied 1.58 percent, while Mazda Motor spiked 2.15 percent, Toyota Motor accelerated 2.36 percent, Honda Motor soared 3.82 percent, Softbank Group jumped 2.01 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial strengthened 1.52 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.58 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial climbed 1.18 percent, Mitsubishi Electric surged 2.35 percent, Sony Group gained 0.52 percent, Panasonic Holdings improved 1.95 percent and Hitachi perked 0.16 percent.

The lead from Wall Street positive as the major averages opened flat on Monday but all eventually tracked higher and ended in the green.

The Dow added 66.69 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 42,906.95, while the NASDAQ spiked 192.29 points or 0.98 percent to close at 19,764.88 and the S&P 600 gained 43.22 points or 0.73 percent to end at 5,974.07.

The advance by the tech-heavy NASDAQ came amid a rally by semiconductor stocks, while significant strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks.

Overall trading activity was subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves amid what is likely to be a quiet week due to the Christmas Day holiday on Wednesday.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods slumped more than expected in November. Also, the Conference Board noted an unexpected deterioration by consumer confidence in December.

Oil futures settled lower Monday amid concerns about possible excess supply in the market, while a stronger dollar also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February dipped $0.26 or 0.3 percent at $69.20 a barrel.

Closer to home, the Bank of Japan will release the minutes this morning from its monetary policy meeting on October 30-31. At the meeting, the BoJ Policy Board decided to maintain the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0.25 percent. This was the highest since late 2008. The BoJ ended its negative interest rate policy in March and lifted the benchmark rate in July to the current level.