Japan Shares May See Renewed Support On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Wednesday wrote a finish to the three-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 3,380 points or 7.5 percent to a fresh record closing high. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 47,730-point plateau although it may bounce higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over the outlook for interest rates, and on support from technology shares. The European and U.S. markets were mostly up and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Wednesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index dropped 215.89 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 47,734.99 after trading between 47,728.27 and 48,181.12. Among the actives, Nissan Motor tanked 2.44 percent, while Mazda Motor added 0.65 percent, Toyota Motor shed 0.46 percent, Honda Motor eased 0.06 percent, Softbank Group stumbled 2.00 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial collected 2.27 percent, Mizuho Financial spiked 2.31 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial jumped 1.78 percent, Mitsubishi Electric rallied 2.35 percent, Sony Group climbed 1.07 percent, Panasonic Holdings dropped 0.93 percent and Hitachi perked 0.09 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is fairly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but moved generally higher through the day, although the Dow slipped back under water at the close.

The Dow eased 1.20 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 46,601.78. while the NASDAQ jumped 255.01 points or 1.12 percent to close at 23,043.38 and the S&P 500 gained 39.13 points or 0.58 percent to end at 6,753.72.

The strength on Wall Street reflected a notable advance by shares of AI darling Nvidia (NVDA), which surged to a record high on reports of increased demand.

Stocks saw continued strength even after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's September revealed participants expressed a range of views about the likely future path of monetary policy.

Most judged that it likely would be appropriate to ease policy further over the remainder of this year, the Fed said, although some noted financial conditions warrant a cautious approach in the consideration of future policy changes.

Crude oil surged on Wednesday, extending gains from the past two sessions after OPEC said it would affect only a modest hike in production next month. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.89 or 1.44 percent at $62.62 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will provide preliminary September data for machine tool orders later today; in August, orders were up 8.1 percent on year.