Steady Start Seen For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, dropping more than 400 points of 0.7 percent along the way. The Nikkei now sits just beneath the 62,420-point plateau although it may find traction on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with a touch of upside as ambiguity continues to reign in the Middle East. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers. For the day, the index sank 295.77 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 62,417.88 after trading between 62,380.62 and 63,385.04. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 1.30 percent, while Mazda Motor rose 0.31 percent, Toyota Motor retreated 1.48 percent, Honda Motor declined 1.42 percent, Softbank Group plunged 6.33 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial jumped 1.78 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 1.76 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rallied 2.07 percent, Mitsubishi Electric fell 0.20 percent, Sony Group surged 8.29 percent, Panasonic Holdings added 0.48 percent and Hitachi slumped 1.03 percent. The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened mixed on Monday and largely hugged the line throughout the session, finishing with slight gains.

The Dow climbed 95.31 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 49,704.47, while the NASDAQ added 27.05 points or 0.10 percent to close at a record 26,274.13 and the S&P 500 rose 13.19 points or 0.19 percent to end at 7,412.84, also a record.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following recent strength.

Crude oil futures surged after President Donald Trump rejected Iran's response to a U.S. proposal to end the months-long war, calling it "totally unacceptable" in a post on Truth Social. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $3.33 or 3.49 percent at $98.75 per barrel.

Trump later told reporters the U.S.-Iran ceasefire is on "life support" amid the ongoing dispute, describing the state of the truce "unbelievably weak."

However, U.S. markets have recently been able to shrug off concerns about the impact of the Middle East conflict amid upbeat earnings news. Closer to home, Japan will release March figures for household spending; spending is expected to rise 0.6 percent on month and fall 1.6 percent on year after adding 1.5 percent on month and dropping 1.8 percent on month in February. Japan also will see preliminary March numbers for its leading and coincident indexes; in February, they were up 1.3 percent and down 1.8 percent on month, respectively.