Soft Start Anticipated For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Friday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 675 points or 1.7 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 39,150-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower, with energy stocks likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the broader market were mitigated by support from the financial shares, while the automobile and technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index sank 312.04 points or 0.79 percent to finish at 39,149.43 after trading between 39,133.94 and 39,543.93.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor rallied 2.55 percent, while Mazda Motor rose 0.24 percent, Toyota Motor sank 0.74 percent, Honda Motor accelerated 2.48 percent, Softbank Group strengthened 1.40 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial perked 0.08 percent, Mizuho Financial climbed 1.10 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial collected 0.53 percent, Mitsubishi Electric stumbled 1.53 percent, Sony Group skyrocketed 8.65 percent, Panasonic Holdings rose 0.16 percent and Hitachi surged 4.33 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened higher on Friday but couldn't hold the gains, finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 165.32 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 44,546.08, while the NASDAQ added 81.17 points or 0.41 percent to close at 20,026.77 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.44 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,114.63.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.6 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.5 percent and the Dow advanced 0.6 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following Thursday's rally, which saw the S&P 500 jump near its record highs despite data showing a bigger than expected increase by producer prices.

Traders were also digesting a mixed batch of U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing retail sales slumped much more than expected in January. A separate report from the Federal Reserve showed industrial production rose by more than expected last month.

Oil prices drifted lower on Friday as supply concerns eased amid hopes of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine and possibility of removal of sanctions on Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures fell $0.55 or 0.77 percent at $70.74 a barrel. WTI futures gained 1.0 percent for the week.

Closer to home, Japan will release preliminary Q4 numbers for gross domestic product later this morning. In the third quarter, GDP was up 0.3 percent on quarter and 1.2 percent on year.

Japan also will see final December numbers for industrial production and its tertiary industry activity index. In the previous reading, production was up 0.3 percent on month and capacity utilization slipped 1.9 percent. The tertiary index had a reading of 0.20 after showing -1.20 in November.