Rebound Anticipated For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 370 points or 1 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just shy of the 36,900-point plateau, although it may bounce higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on bargain hunting and an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Friday following losses among the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index plummeted 817.73 points or 2.17 percent to finish at 36,887.17 after trading between 36,813.62 and 37,221.65.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 1.76 percent, while Mazda Motor lost 0.49 percent, Toyota Motor shed 0.69 percent, Honda Motor sank 0.56 percent, Softbank Group slumped 2.85 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial retreated 1.64 percent, Mizuho Financial stumbled 2.70 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial tanked 2.19 percent, Mitsubishi Electric added 0.45 percent, Sony Group plunged 4.24 percent, Panasonic Holdings tumbled 1.81 percent and Hitachi plummeted 4.22 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday, dipped midday but rebounded into the green by the close.

The Dow climbed 222.62 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 42,801.72, while the NASDAQ rallied 126.92 points or 0.70 percent to close at 18,196.22 and the S&P 500 gained 31.68 points or 0.55 percent to end at 5,770.20. For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 3.5 percent, the S&P 500 sank 3.1 percent and the Dow slumped 2.4 percent.

The volatility on Wall followed the release of the closely watched Labor Department report showing employment in the U.S. increased less than expected in February.

While the report added to recent concerns about the strength for the economy, the data may also have generated some optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Bargain hunting contributed to the afternoon recovery, which came even though Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the central bank does not "need to be in a hurry" to adjusted interest rates amid uncertainty about the effects of President Donald Trump's policies.

Crude oil prices faded after an early surge but still remained notably higher on Friday, adding to the modest gain posted in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate for April delivery climbed $0.68 cents or 1.0 percent to $67.04 a barrel.

Closer to home, Japan is scheduled to release a handful of reports this morning, including January results for current account and leading and coincident indexes, as well as February figures for bank lending.

The current account is expected to show a deficit of 230 billion yen following the 1.077 trillion yen surplus in December. The leading index was up 0.5 percent on month in the previous month and the coincident index rose 1.0 percent. Bank lending is tipped to add 3.1 percent on year, up from 3.0 percent in January.