Japan Shares May Turn Lower Again On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market ticked higher again on Monday, one session after snapping the three-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 1,700 points or 3.4 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 50,580-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were soft and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The Nikkei finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the automobile producers and technology stocks were capped by weakness from the financial sector. For the day, the index added 90.07 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 50,581.94 after trading between 50,224.65 and 50,678.05. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 3.08 percent, while Mazda Motor perked 0.18 percent, Toyota Motor advanced 0.92 percent, Honda Motor added 0.56 percent, Softbank Group stumbled 3.27 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial slumped 1.23 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.05 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial sank 0.83 percent, Mitsubishi Electric soared 3.42 percent, Sony Group dropped 0.74 percent, Panasonic Holdings gained 0.41 percent and Hitachi improved 0.57 percent. The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the session well under water.

The Dow dropped 215.67 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 47,739.32, while the NASDAQ sank 32.22 points or 0.14 percent to close at 23,545.90 and the S&P 500 fell 23.89 points or 0.35 percent to end at 6,846.51.

The modest pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking following recent strength in the markets, which saw the NASDAQ and S&P 500 reach their best closing levels in a month last Friday.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision on Wednesday.

With the Fed widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts next year.

Crude oil prices slumped on Monday as the U.S. dollar strengthened ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, which has largely been priced in. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $1.28 or 2.13 percent at $58.80 per barrel. Closer to home, Japan will see November numbers for its M2 money stock later this morning, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.4 percent - down from 1.6 percent in October.