Japan Shares Expected To Open Under Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market on Tuesday wrote a finish to the three-day winning streak in which is had surged almost 2,200 points or 4 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just beneath the 51,500-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns that technology shares may be over bought. The European and U.S. markets were firmly under water and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the automobile producers were mixed.

For the day, the index tumbled 914.14 points or 1.74 percent to finish at the daily low of 51,497.20 after peaking at 52,636.87. Among the actives, Nissan Motor fell 0.34 percent, while Mazda Motor retreated 1.40 percent, Toyota Motor added 0.54 percent, Honda Motor jumped 1.92 percent, Softbank Group plummeted 7.03 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial perked 0.09 percent, Mizuho Financial shed 0.56 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial dipped 0.31 percent, Mitsubishi Electric gained 0.35 percent, Sony Group sank 0.85 percent, Panasonic Holdings stumbled 3.34 percent and Hitachi dropped 1.82 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 251.44 points of 0.53 percent to finish at 47,085.24, while the NASDAQ plummeted 486.09 points or 2.04 percent to close at 23,348.64 and the S&P 500 sank 80.42 points or 1.17 percent to end at 6,771.55.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the valuations of tech stocks, which have helped lead the markets to record highs amid optimism about artificial intelligence.

The weakness on Wall Street also came as Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon warned of a significant correction by the equity markets over the next 1-2 years.

Crude oil prices declined sharply on Tuesday due to excess supply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.44 or 0.72 percent at $60.61 per barrel.

Closer to home, the Bank of Japan will release the minutes from its September 18 monetary policy meeting later this morning. At the meeting, the Japanese central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent, as expected, but surprised markets with a decision to reduce the holdings of its massive stock of exchange-traded funds, suggesting that the monetary policy normalization is underway.

Japan also will see October figures for its monetary base, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 5.0 percent on year following the 6.1 percent drop in September.