Steady Start Seen For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, rallying almost 3,500 points or 5.6 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 68,950-point plateau and it may see additional upside again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat with a touch of upside ahead of U.S. jobs data later today, while falling treasury yields nudge sentiment barely into the green. The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses were barely higher and the Asian markets are likely to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks, metals and shipping companies.

For the day, the index surged 2,203.00 points or 3.30 percent to finish at 68,956.72 after trading between 67,081.66 and 68,995.30.

The lead from Wall Street suggests very mild upside as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but quickly tumbled before recovering midday and hugging the line for the rest of the day.

The Dow rose 20.51 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 50,926.56, while the NASDAQ perked 10.53 points or 0.04 percent to close at 26,871.60 and the S&P 500 was up 14.91 points or 0.19 percent to end at 7,666.45.

The modestly higher close on Wall Street came as treasury yields showed a significant downturn after initially extending their recent upward trend. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note slumped into negative territory after reaching its highest levels since April 2002.

However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

Crude oil prices showed another substantial move to the upside on Thursday following reports that Chinese refiners have suspended oil product exports for October. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $2.53 or 2.8 percent to $92.95 a barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will see August figures for unemployment and September data for monetary base and Tokyo inflation later this morning. The jobless rate (2.4 percent) and the jobs-to-applicant ratio (1.18) are expected to be unchanged.

The monetary base is expected to fall 16.3 percent on year after dropping 15.7 percent in August. Tokyo overall inflation was up1.9 percent on year in August, while core CPI rose an annual 1.8 percent.