Japan Shares May Extend Thursday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Thursday ended the five-day losing streak in which it had plummeted almost 3,400 points or 5.8 percent. The Nikkei now sits just above the 61,680-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on easing crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Nikkei finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index surged 1,879.73 points or 3.14 percent to finish at 61,684.14 after trading between 60,282.35 and 62,043.53. Among the actives, Nissan Motor climbed 1.23 percent, while Mazda Motor accelerated 2.46 percent, Toyota Motor expanded 1.22 percent, Honda Motor jumped 3.05 percent, Softbank Group skyrocketed 19.85 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial collected 1.22 percent, Mizuho Financial spiked 4.57 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial strengthened 2.53 percent, Mitsubishi Electric soared 5.60 percent, Sony Group tumbled 1.44 percent, Panasonic Holdings surged 6.67 percent and Hitachi vaulted 4.38 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages spent the first half of Thursday in the red before bouncing firmly into positive territory, ending near daily highs.

The Dow climbed 276.31 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 50,285.66, while the NASDAQ added 22.74 points or 0.09 percent to end at 26,293.10 and the S&P 500 rose 12.75 points or 0.17 percent to close at 7,445.72.

The initial pullback on Wall Street came amid a substantial rebound by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures surging as much as 4.5 percent after plummeting by 5.7 percent on Wednesday.

Unable to hold those early gains, crude oil prices turned lower over the course of trading on Thursday as investors watched developments in the U.S.-Iran peace talks. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $1.41 or 1.43 percent at $96.85 per barrel.

Meanwhile, traders seemed to shrug off the negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), although the AI leader still slumped by 1.8 percent.