Rebound Anticipated For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had tallied more than 3,800 points or 7.2 percent. The Nikkei finished just beneath the 55,900-point plateau although it's expected to see renewed support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets comes on cautious optimism for easing hostilities in the Middle East. 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 modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index dropped 413.10 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 55,895.32 after trading between 55,763.05 and 56,406.49. Among the actives, Nissan Motor tumbled 1.98 percent, while Mazda Motor tanked 2.23 percent, Toyota Motor retreated 1.57 percent, Honda Motor shed 0.58 percent, Softbank Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial both slumped 1.23 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial contracted 1.47 percent, Mizuho Financial plunged 3.11 percent, Mitsubishi Electric rose 0.36 percent, Sony Group fell 0.38 percent, Panasonic Holdings skidded 1.03 percent, Hitachi stumbled 1.46 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages shook off early weakness on Thursday to climb solidly up into the green by midday.

The Dow jumped 275.88 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 48,185.80, while the NASDAQ rallied 187.42 points or 0.83 percent to end at 22,822.42 and the S&P 500 gained 41.85 points or 0.62 percent to close at 6,824.66.

The early weakness came amid concerns about the fragility of the ceasefire in the Middle East, with Iran accusing the U.S. and Israel of violating the agreement.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh claimed in an interview with the BBC that Iran had once again closed the Strait of Hormuz.

However, stocks rebounded after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would begin negotiating with Lebanon "as soon as possible."

Crude oil prices soared on Thursday as Iran allowed only restricted naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, renewing supply disruption concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up $3.25 or 3.44 percent at $97.66 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will release March figures for bank lending and producer prices this morning. Bank lending is expected to rise 4.4 percent on year, easing from 4.5 percent in February. Producer prices are seen higher by 0.9 percent on month and 2.4 percent on year after slipping 0.1 percent on month and rising 2.0 percent on year in the previous month.