Little Movement Seen For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, slumping more than 830 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 56,800-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little guidance amidst a lack of catalysts as the U.S. markets were off for the President's Day holiday. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are likely to follow suit, although many of them are off for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index slumped 135.56 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 56,806.41 after trading between 56,748.18 and 57,219.20. Among the actives, Nissan Motor stumbled 2.15 percent, while Mazda Motor dropped 0.95 percent, Toyota Motor tanked 2.86 percent, Honda Motor surrendered 2.84 percent, Softbank Group soared 6.79 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial plunged 3.06 percent, Mizuho Financial cratered 5.29 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial tumbled 3.40 percent, Mitsubishi Electric slumped 1.27 percent, Sony Group jumped 1.58 percent, Panasonic Holdings dropped 1.89 percent and Hitachi crashed 2.36 percent.

There is no lead from Wall Street, and the European markets offer little in the way of clarity by ending mixed and little changed.

The major European markets saw little movement on Monday with investors reacting to corporate news, developments on the geopolitical front, and ahead of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent monetary policy meeting.

Investors focused on the Munich Security Conference, in which several European leaders reiterated the need for greater defense spending to accelerate the continent's strategic autonomy.

Crude oil prices inches higher on Monday, driven by tensions in the Middle East, although the upside was limited by oversupply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up 0.08 percent to $62.89 per barrel.