Japan Shares May Extend Monday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had plunged nearly 2,200 points or 4.2 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 50,900-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive on optimism that the end of the U.S. government shutdown in near. The European and U.S. markets were sharply higher and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead. The Nikkei finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the automobile producers were mixed. For the day, the index jumped 635.39 points or 1.26 percent to finish at 50,911.76 after trading between 50,392.44 and 50,969.50. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 2.11 percent, while Mazda Motor stumbled 2.06 percent, Toyota Motor rose 0.42 percent, Honda Motor plunged 4.67 percent, Softbank Group spiked 2.56 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial both collected 0.67 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial added 0.65 percent, Mitsubishi Electric gathered 0.33 percent, Sony Group improved 0.59 percent, Panasonic Holdings perked 0.15 percent and Hitachi rallied 2.15 percent. The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Monday and largely spent most of the sessions firmly in positive territory.

The Dow jumped 381.53 points or 0.81 percent to finish at 47,368.63, while the NASDAQ surged 522.64 points or 2.27 percent to close at 23,527.17 and the S&P 500 rallied 103.63 points or 1.54 percent to end at 6,832.43.

The strength on Wall Street came after the Senate voted to advance legislation to end the government shutdown, which recently became the longest in U.S. history. The Senate voted 60-40 in favor of a temporary funding bill, which would also reverse some of the recent mass federal layoffs.

Several Democratic Senators broke with party leaders in favor of moving forward with the legislation, as it does call for a vote on the extension of enhanced Obamacare tax credits.

The end of the shutdown would also lead to the resumption of the release of key U.S. economic data that has recently been withheld.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Monday on the prospects of the U.S. government shutdown coming to a close. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.31 or 0.52 percent at $60.06 per barrel. Closer to home, Japan will release September figures for current account later this morning. The current account surplus is seen at 2.26 trillion yen, down from 246.35 trillion yen in the previous month. Japan also will see October figures for bank lending and the economy watchers current index. Lending is seen steady, higher by 3.8 percent on year. The eco watchers index is expected to show a score of 47.6, up from 47.1 a month earlier.