Japan Stock Market May Extend Its Gains

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, advancing almost 2,200 points or 4 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 52,520-point plateau and it has a positive lead again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets continues to be positive, despite several of the regional bourses already at record closing highs. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to at least open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index jumped 685.28 points or 1.32 percent to finish at 52,518.08 after trading between 52,024.62 and 52,523.77. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 2.78 percent, while Mazda Motor eased 0.04 percent, Toyota Motor improved 0.88 percent, Honda Motor added 0.48 percent, Softbank Group rallied 2.25 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial vaulted 3.14 percent, Mizuho Financial surged 5.07 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial spiked 2.84 percent, Mitsubishi Electric expanded 2.57 percent, Sony Group gained 0.78 percent, Panasonic Holdings climbed 1.23 percent and Hitachi skyrocketed 7.44 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened in the green on Tuesday and trended higher through the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 484.90 points or 0.99 percent to finish at a record high 49,462.08, while the NASDAQ climbed 151.35 points or 0.65 percent to end at 23,547.17 and the S&P 500 gained 42.77 points or 0.62 percent to close at 6,944.82, also a record.

The Dow benefitted from a sharp increase by shares of Amazon (AMZN) after it announced it is rolling out Alexa.com to Alexa+ Early Access customers in what is seen as an effort to more directly compete with ChatGPT and Gemini.

The continued advance by the broader markets came despite a lack of major catalysts, as traders look ahead to the release of several key U.S. economic reports in the coming days.

The highlight of the week may be the Labor Department's monthly jobs report on Friday. That data could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Tuesday as investors booked profits while analyzing the consequences of Saturday's swift U.S. military operation in Venezuela on global oil supply. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was down $1.11 or 1.90 percent at $57.21 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will see December results for its services PMI from Jibun Bank later this morning; in November, the index score was 53.2.