Soft Start Eyed For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, stumbling more than 480 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 38,400-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative thanks to U.S. involvement in the Israel/Iran conflict. The European and U.S. markets were mixed but the Asian markets figure to open under water.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the technology stocks and automobile producers, while the financial shares came in mixed.

For the day, the index sank 85.11 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 38,403.23 after trading between 38,362.54 and 38,646.16.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor retreated 1.42 percent, while Mazda Motor tumbled 1.73 percent, Toyota Motor dropped 0.91 percent, Honda Motor shed 0.49 percent, Softbank Group rallied 2.66 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial collected 0.36 percent, Mizuho Financial lost 0.66 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial eased 0.11 percent, Mitsubishi Electric dipped 0.10 percent, Sony Group stumbled 2.25 percent, Panasonic Holdings slumped 1.33 percent and Hitachi tanked 1.85 percent.

The lead from Wall Street remains murky as the major averages opened higher on but quickly fell under water, finally finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 35.16 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 42,206.82, while the NASDAQ dropped 98.86 points or 0.51 percent to close at 19,447.41 and the S&P 500 sank 13.03 points or 0.22 percent to end at 5,967.84.

The positive boost to kick off trade on Wall Street came after the White House said President Donald Trump sees a "substantial chance of negotiations" and would decide within two weeks whether to authorize a direct U.S. military strike on Iran.

Of course, on Saturday the United States bombed three sites in Iran that are suspected nuclear development areas. The fallout from those attacks remains uncertain.

On the economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said on Friday that regional manufacturing activity remained weak in June. The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity was unchanged in June after jumping to a negative 4.0 in May, with a negative reading indicating contraction. Economists had expected the index to rise to a negative 1.0.

Crude oil price slipped on Friday as concerns of U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict faded, even as the fighting between the two nations intensified. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery closed down by $0.21 to $74.93 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will see preliminary June results for the manufacturing and services PMIs from Jibun Bank later this morning; in May, their scores were 49.4 and 51.0, respectively.